The annotated translations of excerpts from the Warhammer 40,000 novels Prospero Burns by Dan Abnett and Soul Hunter by Aaron Dembski-Bowden into Maltese

Abstract

Although this dissertation is primarily concerned with the translation of excerpts from Prospero Burns and Soul Hunter, I need to present it with an extensive background to the genre of science fiction in general which would serve as a basis for the specialised field of Warhammer 40,000 and the myriad influences which thread its universe, such as the religious symbolism in both its aesthetic and philosophy. I had to keep all of this in mind when translating, when searching for the correct word or in the absence of such, come up with the most apt term. There are three main aspects to Warhammer 40,000 upon which I had to work when approaching the selected texts which I have called the Rule of Three, a kind of three-pronged attack with which I tackled the various issues present: 1. Firstly the technological aspect of science-fiction which entails specialised jargon that at best is a tad problematic to fit within the Maltese language1. Since in essence, Warhammer 40,000 falls under the category of science fiction, this is what I'd like to call the bedrock of the entire translation, the most apparent and dependable aspect. This includes military-tech jargon, especially in the translation of Graham McNeill's Mechanicum which is dense with such terminology. 2. Secondly the religious/mythological aspect which I found lends itself very well to Maltese, a fact which has balanced the initial problems imposed by the technological jargon. The main reason is that Catholicism is deeply embedded within our culture, including the language, the religion itself forming an integral part of the Maltese psyche, irrespective of whether one is a believer or a non-believer. Later on this proved to be a boon on more than one front, especially since for countless generations before the twenty-first Ecumenical Council (more known as the Second Vatican Council) of the Catholic Church, the liturgy was carried out in Latin. 3. And last of all, the element of fantasy which is inherent in Warhammer 40,000 through the presence of angelic figures, bizarre beasts and daemons which helps reinforce the religious/mythological aesthetic and softens the 'hard edges' of the technological aspect, making it more 'palatable' to the language.