Cultural Issues Regarding the Translation of Dramatic Texts

Abstract

A drama is a composition in verse or phrase intended to portray life or character or to tell a story usually involving conflicts and emotions through actions and dialogues. A drama is typically designed for theoretical performances. The written version of a drama is known as the script or the dramatic text and converting this text into a different language is known as the translation of dramatic texts. The objective of this research is to find out the manner that culture influences the translation of dramatic texts and the strategies that can be used to overcome the challenges that rise during the process. "The Caucassian Chalk Circle" by Bertolt Bretcht and its Sinhalese translation "Hunu Vataye kathawa" by Henry Jayasena are used as primary sources and data were collected by comparing the two texts. The cultural data of the source text and its translation were categorised according to several topics namely religious terms, political views, class distinction, food and beverages, life style, parlance, and clothing items. Accordingly, it was discovered that cultural words appearing in the source text can be entirely different from those of the target culture. Therefore, having sufficient knowledge regarding both cultural backgrounds are vital in order to overcome the problems encountered in translating. Further, it was identified that methods such as borrowing, use of cultural equivalents creation, reconstruction are among the methods used by dramatic text translators in addition to direct translation method. Thus, for a successful dramatic text translation in which the target readers are allowed to ascertain an unknown culture effectively, having adequate knowledge in both source language and target language along with their respective cultures is important for a translator. Both primary and secondary data were collected by referring to subject related books and Google websites.