Intercommunication of Culture through Translation: A Linguistic Study on the French Translation of Martin Wickramasinghe‟s „Viragaya‟. Ranasinghe, D.S.B. (2017). Intercommunication of Culture through Translation: A Linguistic Study on the French Translation of Martin Wickramasinghe‟s „Viragaya‟.

Abstract

Translation is a mode of communication between cultures. The translator transfers the meaning of the original text to the target text. In fact, translation eliminates the difficulties of communication between languages and cultures. However, when there are significant differences between the two cultures, the translator will face a challenge in translating from source text to target text, as the translator has to overcome the hurdle of cultural differences. Therefore, the translator‟s language competence should be equally good as his knowledge of culture in both target and source languages. This research presents a linguistic study of intercommunication of culture through translation. The Sinhalese novel Viragaya by Martin Wickramasinghe (1956) along with its French translation Viragaya ou le non-attachement (1995) by Ven. Mandawala Pannawansa Thera were studied to examin how the French translation transfers the Sri Lankan cultural setting of the novel for the French readers. The aim of this study is to find out the appropriate strategies, techniques and methods used by the translator to solve the cultural and linguistic barriers encountered in the translation of the literary text from Sinhala to French. The study emplyed a qualitative approach for the research, which includes a close content analysis and a comparison between the source text and the target text. The findings of this research will highlight the major strategies that the translator has used in finding equivalence in the target culture that suit both surface and contextual meaning of the specific cultural word/phrase. In conclusion, this research will be useful for the students who study languages as they will be able to learn the cultural differences between Sri Lanka and France and will also be a guideline to conduct further research on translation and intercultural studies.