Challenges of Translating Newspapers from Sinhala to English: With Reference to Political News

Abstract

Within the spectrum of genres in news media, this study aims at print media (newspapers) and on sub genres called „news features‟ and „news articles‟ based on politics. In the journalistic field, especially in the field of news translation the translator plays a major role. It is important as the translator has a responsibility to reveal the current political affairs of the country to the target readers through the view of the writer. Newspapers can reach a large audience and can have an impact on public opinion on politics as it plays a major role in publishing comments and therefore, the terms and phrases should be used carefully.This study focuses on political news and political news feature translations from Sinhala to English. The objective of this study was to highlight the significant features that a political news and political news feature translation comprices. The required data was collected through observations and discussions. The gathered data was critically analysed under two separate sectors; news articles and news features based on politics. As per the analysis, it was found that the political news translation is greatly influenced by the historical, sociological and political environment. The news translator sometimes found it difficult to translate some political news features and articles as there are specific styles, terminology and cultural context used. Furthermore, it was found that a news translator should have a sound knowledge in history, politics and current social affairs in addition to the source and target language knowledge specially when translating political news features and articles. Therefore, in addition to the language knowledge and skills, the knowledge in history, politics and sociology also pave the path to successful political news and feature translations.