Translation Loss in “Alimankada Sita”: the Sinhalese Translation of the Novel “The Road from Elephant Pass”

Abstract

Literary translation is an interesting but complex field of Translation Studies. If the translator fails to convey the idea given by the source text along with its extralinguistic elements, it will cause a translation loss. The objective of this study is to find the translation loss in the novel “Alimankada Sita”: the Sinhalese translation of “The Road from Elephant Pass”. Accordingly, the research problems are: “What are the linguistic levels at which translation loss occurs in “Alimankada Sita?” and “What are the reasons for such loss in translation?” Further, the researcher attempts to analyze the impact of such losses in rendering the meaning of the original text. This qualitative research was conducted as a comparative content analysis. Accordingly, it was found that translation losses occur at different linguistic levels. Further, it was found that such losses occur in instances where unnecessary omissions and additions take place, and in translating and transliterating Tamil terms, idiomatic phrases, taboos, slang, and dialogues. Moreover, it was identified that there are translation losses that occur as a result of following the structure of the source language, while not looking for the target language structure and equivalents on syntactic and semantic levels. It was also noticed that the lack of prior studies about Tamil language and culture which appear in dialogues is another cause for losses in the target text. Moreover, the impact of such losses could give incorrect information to the target reader. They damage intended message of the original writer of the story as well as the feelings generated through some vital incidents.