A study on the Influence of linguistic and sociocultural Factors on Martha Collins Translation of Black stars by Ngô Tự Lập (NGHIÊN cứu tác ĐỘNG của các NHÂN tố NGÔN NGỮ và văn hóa xã hội đối với bản DỊCH TIẾNG ANH tập THƠ NHỮNG vì SAO ĐEN CỦA NGÔ TỰ LẬP

ABSTRACT
Literature is one essential part in every country, every culture, it is one of the most
important forms of arts that show the human’s life, cultural values and thoughts, ideas
and feelings within a culture. In present trend of globalization, the needs of mutual
understandings between cultures, between countries have become more and more
pressing and translation is an inevitable tool for this process. There have been ideas
claiming that translation is impossible, or “poetry is what gets lost in translation”
(Robert Frost). However, translation is the only way to help people from other cultures
understand one another and so literature, particularly poetry translation has an
undeniable importance. This thesis aims at discovering some factors to be considered in
poetry translation found in Ngô Tự Lâp’s “Black Stars” translation by Martha Collins
and the author. These factors may include Linguistic factors, Socio-cultural factors,
historical factors, Geographical factors and Religious factors. Due to the limit of the
study, the focuses are on linguistic and socio-cultural aspects that leave clear stamps on
the poems in “Black Stars” translation. Nearly 100 sentence pairs from 30 poems
collected from the book are categorized and analyzed. The findings indicate that in
order to have a good poetry translation, many factors including linguistic, sociocultural and aesthetic factors should be put in consideration and the translators are
under a lot of pressure to meet the target language readership’s expectations

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PART A: INTRODUCTION

This part consists of the rationale, the aims of the study, the research questions, the scope
of the study, the methods of the study and the design of the study.
1. Rationale
Translation used to be considered an inter-language transfer of meaning. Many earlier
definitions demonstrate this, using source language and target language as their technical
terms. Moreover, translation theories strictly confined themselves within the sphere of
linguistics. For many years the popular trend in the translation circles had been perfect

faithfulness to the original both in content and in form and it had been regarded as the iron
criterion as if from the holy Bible for translators to observe. The godly status and the
impossible idealistic belief were not altered until new thoughts arose with the respect of
consideration of target readers, the unavoidable translator subjectivity and the purpose and
function of translations. This thesis, starting to look from new angles such as the
accommodation to target cultural conventions, the translator's consciousness of linguistic
and cultural adaptations to make it easy for readers to understand translated works without
too much pain and effort, and translation as a purposeful endeavor. Translation is then
understood as a much more complicated activity with a much broader scope.
Translation of poetry was, and still is by some, believed as impossibility for any unfaithful
elements would have been taken as failure, be it content or form. The arguments include
linguistic elements and cultural elements. Most importantly the myth of untranslatability

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looks upon poetry as beauty itself which is untouchable for once it is touched it is
destroyed. But as translation of poetry has never been stagnant though sometimes vigorous
and sometimes not, there is strong evidence in both translation history and present day
practice that poetry translation, a literary form as distinguished from fiction, drama, and
prose, is translatable. Poetry itself serves a purpose, be it an illusive matter, and aesthetics
can be reproduced in another language and culture if accommodation is made.
“Black Stars” was a collection of poems originally in Vietnamese by Ngô Tự Lập, can be
seen as a master of both the Source Language(his mother tongue- Vietnamese) and the
Target Language(English). The book was published in 2013, also the first time introduced
to the public, both in Vietnamese and English, after a long period of co-operating between
the author and a native American poet Martha Collins. It consists of 42 poems divided into
3 parts mostly talks about the author’s inner world, his memories and dreams.
The reason why I decided to study this bilingual poem collection for this research is that it
was proved to be a good translation (the book was nominated for PEN International Prize

in the United States 2014 in Poetry in translation category) and it serves well my purposes
of studying on the linguistic and socio-cultural factors affecting translating in general,
literary and especially poetry translation in particular. It also proves that poetry translation
can be both faithful and aesthetic with regards to the target readers’ features, among which
the most important are linguistic and socio-cultural ones.
2. Aims of the study
This research was carried out to serve the following purposes:

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-

To identify the factors affecting literary translation and the application in teaching and
practicing translation.

-

To find out the underlying reasons for the modifications found in the translation.

3. Research question
This research is carried out to find the answer to the research questions:
1. What are the modifications made in the translation?
2. What are the factors affecting these modifications their influences on the
translation?

4. Scope of the study
- Pointing out linguistic and socio-cultural stamps on the language uses in the poetry
translation.
- The book of Ngô Tự Lâp’s “Black Stars” poems collection co-translated by Martha

Collins and the author is under investigation.
5. Methods of the study
- This study used the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods.
Qualitative method was employed to analyze the language in both the original and
translated poems to find out the modifications made, categorize them into modifications of
linguistic or socio-cultural needs.
Quantitative method was employed in order to quantify American linguistic and cultural
elements such as linguistic structures, language use, norms, values, attitudes and

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communication styles of the target readers while the qualitative method investigates the
why and how of the changes and adaptation, not just what, where, when.
- Data was collected by means of descriptive analysis and statistic.
6. Design of the study
This research consists of 3 parts: INTRODUCTION, DEVELOPMENT, AND
CONCLUSION.
Part A: INTRODUCTION.
This part discusses rationale, aims of the study, research questions, scope of the study,
methods of the study, and designs of the study.
Part B: DEVELOPMENT
This is the focus of the study which is divided into 3 chapters.
Chapter 1: Literature Review.
This part discusses the opposite ideas of untranslatability and translatability of poetry; the
elements to consider in translation in general and more specifically in poetry translation,
among which the focuses are on the linguistic elements, elements of American culture,
language use, interrelationship between language and culture and how they interact and
affect each other.
Chapter 2: Methodology

This part is focused on a detailed depiction of the methodology applied in the research
paper. More specially, the size and characteristics of the research subject altogether with
research instruments, data collection procedure as well as data analysis procedure are put
into description and justification.

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Chapter 3: Findings and discussions
This part focuses on analyzing linguistic and socio-cultural factors expressed by the
changes found in the English translation of poems in “Black Stars” in comparison with the
Vietnamese original.
Part C: CONCLUSION
To sum up the major findings, give implications for effective poetry translation.

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This part discusses the opposite ideas of untranslatability and translatability of poetry; the
elements to consider in translation in general and more specifically in poetry translation,
among which the focuses are on the linguistic elements, elements of American culture,
language use, interrelationship between language and culture and how they interact and
affect each other.
1. Untranslatability – What are they saying?
“Traduttore, traditore” (Translator, traitor), says the well-known Italian adage.
“Poetry is what gets lost in translation”, Robert Frost says
Croce (quoted in Carravetta, 1997) holds that poems cannot be compared, as each is

unique. Translation is impossible; it is only a pedagogical necessity. The responsibility of
the interpreter is to capture "the mood or state of being (stato d'animo) of its author”.
In modern times some scholars have come to realize that something in a language can not
be fully translated into another, in other words, there is an inevitable loss of meaning.
Catford (1965), a celebrated translation scholar of the linguistic school, raises the issue of
untranslatability with a new perspective. He argues that linguistic untranslaltability is due
to the difference in the Source Language (SL) and the Target Language (TL), whereas
cultural untranslatability is due to the absence in the TL of relevant situational features.
Roman Jacobson argues that all poetic texts are technically untranslatable because
complete equivalence( in the sense of synonym or sameness) can not take place, this was

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taken up once again by Werner Winter(1971) that translation cannot be an exact replica of
the original. Dabeluet and Viney (quoted in Wilss, 2001), in the fruitful book A
comparative French and English Stylistics have analyzed in detail the points of linguistic
difference between the two languages, differences that constitute areas where translation is
impossible. Popovic (quoted in Wilss, 2001) also has attempted to define untranslatability
without making a separation between the linguistic and cultural factors. Nida (1984)
presents a rich source of information about the problems of loss in translation, in particular
about the difficulties encountered by the translators when facing with terms or concepts in
SL that do not exist in TL. Newmark (1982) has also once briefly talked about the
deviation in translation.
In Vietnam, the poetry translation is not a new job. The ancient Viet scholars considered
the Chinese poems translating

a noble recreation in their free time. Why was it a

recreation but not a work? Recall Chinese was one of the major languages in those days,

especially among highly educated people, the translation was not the need of bringing the
works to the readers (or listeners) but more like a recreating a new poem in Viet language.
The 20th century can be considered the very developed period of literary translation and the
poetry translation took a lot of attention with many different ideas. Translator Hoàng Hưng
claims “ Poetry can be no way translated because poetry itself is the art of language, it
sticks to the linguistic features of the source language, if we transfer it into another
language, the poem is half destroyed”
In summary, I find that those who stick to untranslatability are none but two kinds of
people. Some strictly believe the holiness of the original text and others the absoluteness of

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the unity of meaning and form in a certain language. And they, idealistically, do not allow
any addition or loss of meaning in the transferring process as in translation, which is
actually inevitable and is a rule rather than an exception.
2. Translatability- A hypothesis
Translation work, in its present form, dates back more than a thousand years in Vietnam
and in Western countries. The ever-lasting practice of translation itself manifests the
translatability of languages. Therefore, it stands to reason that a language can be translated
into another. Under the guide of this perception, former scholars usually probe into the
problem of translation from an instinctive and empirical point of view.
Not all words need to be translated. Some cannot. Some can be transcribable, but if there is
no cultural equivalent, whether it is translatable or not it still needs to be explained, just
like a jargon needs to be explained to the non-specialist in a footnote. Words, expressions
or interjections that are exclusive to a culture, a religion or a jargon cannot always be
translated in a satisfactory way because the same thing does not exist in the other
language's culture. In many cases such words with no perfect equivalent are the words that
end up being borrowed by the other language, sometimes with a possible spelling
adaptation to ease pronunciation in the other language.

Jacobson ( 1966: 238) (quoted in Wolfram Wilss, 2001) comes to the conclusion that
poetry by definition is untranslatable. Only creative transposition is possible. With this as a
prerequisite, on a broader view, translation of poetry should and must be translatable.
Historically speaking, the activity of poetry translation has always been there, popular at
one time and losing momentum at another, though always being practiced. In other words,

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whenever human communication is necessary, translation will live on and maintain a firm
and fast stronghold. The reason is simple but unavoidable—we, as a nation or a country,
are not living alone. As long as we do not lock ourselves up, translation will be
translatable, be it scientific translation, commercial translation or literary (including
poetry) translation.
Many translators in contemporary and modern Vietnam literature have made and are
making outstanding contributions to the literary and poetry exchanges between Vietnam
and the West through their diligent and painstaking work. Phan Ngoc for instance, have
translated several works from Latin, Russian, French and English into Vietnamese, the
most important being the Shakespeare,War and peace, Oliver Twist. Ngô Tự Lập, the
author and co-translator of “Black Stars”, is another example to have introduced
Vietnamese poetry to readers of English through The woman carry river water by Nguyễn
Quang Thiều( co-translated with the author), Lam Thi My Da’s “Green field” ( cotranslated with Thuy Dinh). Foreigners include Arthur Waley, Herbert Giles, Witter
Bynner, W.J.B. Fletcher, James Legg, Amy Lowell, etc.
All these people do not only support the idea that translation of poetry is possible but
provide living proof by their many well-received and highly-acclaimed translated works.
3. Unstranslatability- Analysis of Why
Some theories state that in principle nothing can ever be translated: languages are,
according to the theory, so closely linked to the cultures in which they are used that one
can even safely assume that no two languages have equivalent concepts (cf. the SapirWholf hypothesis). In the Italian edition of her book Translation Studies, originally

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published in 1980, (La traduzione: teorie e patica- translated by Genziana Bandini, 1993),
Susan Bassnett illustrates this with the example of the English term “butter” and the Italian
translation “burro”. Both terms refer to an edible dairy product sold in the form of a block
of fat in their respective cultures of origin. It would nevertheless be incorrect to claim that
“burro” and “butter” mean the same thing in both cultural contexts, because there are in
fact the following differences
burro
bright colour

butter
deep yellow colour

sweet taste

salty taste

used
cooking
no
connotations

when spread
on
(bread and butter)

bread

social

connotes
high
class
(compared
to more common margarine)
This argues that the images formed in people’s perspective about every word are different
from language to language so translation is impossible. Even Cervantes, a world famous
writer, claimed “ translation is the other side of the tapestry”.
Catford (as cited in B. Samuel& D. Samuel, 2007, 375-379) distinguishes two types of
untranslatability: linguistic and cultural. Linguistic untranslatability refers to translation
problems which arise when there is no lexical or syntactical substitute in the TL for an SL
item, whereas cultural untranslatability occurs when an item in SL culture does not exist in
the TL culture. The linguistic and cultural untranslatability exist in any language, by
narrow and large, yet in poetry both types of untranslatability become more intense when
poets deviate from the conventional linguistic and cultural norms.

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On the other hand, Popovic (as cited in Bassnett, 2002, p. 42) has attempted to define
untranslatability without making a separation between the linguistic and cultural
untranslatability. He defines the former as “[a] situation in which the linguistic elements of
the original cannot be replaced adequately in structural, linear, functional or semantic
terms in consequence of a lack of denotation or connotation.” and the latter as “[a]situation
where the relation of expressing the meaning, i.e. the relation between the creative subject
and its linguistic expression in the original does not find an adequate linguistic expression
in the translation.”
Gipper (1972: 91) (quoted in Wolfram Wilss, 2001: 41) believes that translation is and will

continue to be a relative concept. It could be said that every translation represents a
transposition from the perspectives of one linguistic view of the world to those of another
and that this cannot take place entirely without changes or metamorphoses (change of form
or character).
4. Problems in poetry translation
4.1. Linguistic elements
Levy (1967: 58) (as quoted in Wilss, 2001: 124) argues that the translator frequently finds
himself in a conflict-and-decision-marked situation during the translation process, a
situation which becomes all the more difficult to master, the more complex the textual
segment to be translated is in terms of syntax, semantics and stylistics.
In recent years the scope of linguistics has widened beyond the confines of the individual
sentence. Text linguistics attempts to account for the form of texts in terms of their users.
If we accept that meaning is something that is negotiated between producers and receivers

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to texts, it follows that the translator, as a special kind of text user, intervenes in this
process of negotiation, to relay it across linguistic and cultural boundaries. In doing so, the
translator is necessarily handling such matters as intended meaning, implied meaning,
presupposed meaning, all on the basis of the evidence which the text supplies. The various
domains of socio-linguistics, pragmatics and discourse linguistics are all areas of study
which are germane (pertinent) to this process ( Hatim & Mason,1990: 133).
4.2. Literary or Aesthetic Problems
Aesthetic values or poetic truth in a poem are conveyed in word order and sounds, as well
as in cognitive sense (logic). And these aesthetic values have no independent meaning, but
they are correlative with the various types of meaning in the text. Hence, if the translator
destroys the word choice, word order, and the sounds, he impairs and distorts the beauty of
the original poem. Delicacy and gentleness, for instance, will be ruined if the translator
provides crude alliterations for the original carefully-composed alliterations. So, the

problems in translating a poem is how to retain the aesthetic values in the TL text.
The aesthetic values, according to Newmark (1981: 65) are dependent on the structure (or
poetic structure), metaphor, and sound. Poetic structure includes the plan of the original
poem as a whole, the shape and the balance of individual sentences in each line. Metaphor
is related to visual images created with combinations of words, which may also evoke
sound, touch, smell, and taste. While sound is anything connected with sound cultivation
including rhyme, rhythm, assonance, onomatopoeia, etc. A translator cannot ignore any of
them although he may order them depending on the nature of the poem translated.

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4.2.1. Poetic Structure
The first factor is structure. It is important to note that structure meant here is the plan of
the poem as a whole, the shape and the balance of individual sentence or of each line. So,
it does not have to relate directly to the sentential structures or grammar of a language,
even in fact it is very much affected by the sentential structure. Thus, maintaining the
original structure of the poem may mean maintaining the original structure of each
sentence.
4.2.2. Metaphorical Expressions
Metaphorical expressions, as the second factor, mean any constructions evoking visual,
sounds, touch, and taste images, the traditional metaphors, direct comparisons without the
words "like' and "as if", and all figurative languages. Intentionally, the writer does not use
the term metaphor in the sub-heading since it has different meaning for some people. What
is generally known as (traditional) metaphor, for example, is not the same as metaphor
meant by Newmark.
To understand the meaning of metaphor as proposed by Newmark, it is advisable to
understand the following terms: object, image, sense, metaphor, and metonym. Object,
called also topic, is the item which is described by the metaphor. Image refers to the item

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in terms of which the object is described. It is also called vehicle. The next term, sense,
refers to the point of similarity between aspects of the objects and the image. Metaphor
here means the word(s) taken from the image. And finally, metonym refers to one-word
image which replace the object, which is in many cases figurative but not metaphorical.
In the expression "rooting out the faults", for example, the object is 'faults', the image is
'rooting out weeds', the sense is (a) eliminate, (b) with tremendous effort, and the metaphor
is 'rooting out'. The expression 'the seven seas' referring 'the whole world' is not
metaphorical. It is figurative and a metonym.
Newmark (1981: 88-91) proposes seven procedures to translate metaphors in general. The
first procedure is reproducing the same image in the TL if the image has comparable
frequency and currency in the appropriate register. This procedure is usually used for oneword metaphor, e.g. ray of hope. Ray of hope can be simply translated into tia hi vọng.
The second procedure is replacing images in the SL with a standard TL image within the
constraints of TL cultures. The English metaphor ‘raining like dog and cat’ can be replaced
by a Vietnamese expression ‘mưa như trút nước’.
The next is translating a metaphor by simile, retaining the image in the SL. This procedure
can be used to modify any type of metaphor.
And the rest of the procedures, translating metaphor (or simile) into simile plus sense,
conversing metaphor into sense, deleting unimportant metaphor, and translating metaphor

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with some metaphors combined with sense, are not considered appropriate for poetry
translation.
The possible question arising now is 'how far a translator can modify the author's
metaphorical expressions?' It depends on the importance and expressiveness. If the
expressions are very expressive in term of the originality, the expressions should be kept as

close as possible to the original, in terms of object, image, sense, and the metaphor.
And then what about the culturally-bound metaphors or expressions?
As it is known, there are two kinds of expressions: universal and culturally-bound
expressions. Universal expressions are the ones which consist of words having the same
semantic field with that of most cultures in the world. ‘Mặt trời của tôi’, for example, is a
universal expression for every culture sees the sun as the source of light, source of energy,
source of life. Therefore, the expression can be simply transferred into 'You are my sun'.
4.2.3. Sound
The last of literary or aesthetic factors is sound. As stated before, sound is anything
connected with sound cultivation including rhyme, rhythm, assonance, onomatopoeia, etc.
A translator must try to maintain them in the translation. As Newmark (1981: 67) further
states, "In a significant text, semantic truth is cardinal [meaning is not more or less
important, it is important!], whilst of the three aesthetic factors, sound (e.g. alliteration or
rhyme) is likely to recede in importance -- rhyme is perhaps the most likely factor to 'give'
-- rhyming is difficult and artificial enough in one language, reproducing line is sometimes

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doubly so." In short, if the translation is faced with the condition where he should sacrifice
one of the three factors, structure, metaphor, and sound, he should sacrifice the sound.
On the other hand, the translator should balance where the beauty of a poem really lies. If
the beauty lies more on the sounds rather than on the meaning (semantic), the translator
cannot ignore the sound factor.
4.3. Socio-cultural elements
Cultures that are relatively homogeneous tend to see their own way of doing things as
‘naturally', the only way, which just as naturally becomes the ‘best' way when confronted
with other ways. When such cultures themselves take over elements from outside, they
will, once again, naturalize them without too many qualms and too many restrictions.
When Vietnamese translate texts produced by others outside its boundaries, it translates

these texts in order to replace them, pure and simple. The translations take the place of the
originals. They function as the originals in the culture to the extent that the originals
disappear behind the translations. The Vietnamese were forced to deal with the other by
the spread of Buddhism, which did not threaten the fabric of society, and therefore could
be acculturated rather easily on the terms of the receiving, Vietnamese society. This is
apparent not just from the manner of translating, but even more so from the fact that Taoist
concepts were used in translations to acculturate Buddhist concepts. ( quoted from
Bassnett & Lefevere, 2001: 169)
What are the options the translator faces ? We suggest they are as follows:
Is the element being translated obligatory or optional in the TL text format?

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If it is obligatory, is the order in which it occurs appropriate for the TL text
format?
If it is obligatory and the order is appropriate, will iteration (repetition), if there is any, be
appropriate in the TL text format?
The less evaluative the text is, the less need there will be for its structure to be modified in
translation. Conversely, the more evaluative the text is, the more scope there may be for
modification. (ibid: 187)
The less culture-bound (treaties, declarations, resolutions, and other similar documents) a
text is, the less need there will be for its structure to be modified in translation. Conversely,
the more culture-bound a text is, the more scope there may be for modification.

5. Criteria of poetry translation
In the translation circles there used to be two contending regimes, namely those holding
that translation is scientific and the other believing that it is artistic. We believe that poetic
translation absolutely involves artistic elements.
Susan Bassnett (2001) says that if translation is, as Lefevere and others claim, rewriting,

then the relationship between writer and rewriter has to be established as productive.
Translations of poems are part of a process of reading continuity. Writers create for
readers, and the power of the reader to remake the text is fundamental. Different readers

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will produce different translations. What matters in the translation of poetry is that the
translator should be drawn into the poem that he or she then seeks to transpose it
creatively, through the pleasure generated by the reading. (as quoted in Wilss,2001: 74,
128). The authors of lyrical productions do not work with recurrent but with concurrent
linguistic material (Schmidt 1968) or with “low-probability” collocations (Catford, 1965:
102 as quoted in Baker, 1992: 87). The translator is faced with the paradoxical situation
that on the one side the obligatory character of the semantic and formal structure of the
SLT leaves him only a minimum of linguistic room for maneuvering, and that on the other
side he must overcome the limitations set by the aesthetic function of the SLT by
mustering up all his expressive-poetical imaginative power and his language-creative
resources.
What are the characteristics of the style best suited to self-knowledge and catharsis? In
general, it is short, pithy and personal, plain spun, with little artifice, ornament or social
nuance.
Built with little of the poet's tool-kit — just lines of approximately the same length, breaks
engineered to emphasize the sense or confound expectations, metonymy, a simple sound
patterning, structuring to hook the reader's interest and release it on conclusion.

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CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
1. Data corpus

The author of the original poems, Ngo Tu Lap and the American writer Martha Collins
worked together to bring us a valueable bilingual book. First published in the United
States, the book was the collection of both previously published poems as well as new
ones. It was organized in chronologic order of Ngo Tu Lap’s memories: from a young man
reflecting on the village childhood in the war, a mature traveler absorbing and reflecting on
the contemporary global life, to a seasoned “Men with big eyes” who had seen a great deal,
and who can help us see, as we travel a “Road on the Earth”. Firstly, the book was

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valuable for the highly valued poems themselves which reflect beautiful flows of thoughts
and feelings, and new concepts of space and time, light and darkness. It also introduces the
American readers a wide range of stories about memories of war, “utilize traditional
imagery that reflects Vietnamese culture and landscape, in a style that is quite evocative
and sometimes gently surreal”; the lands where he had once traveled, lived or studied.
Thirdly, translators, especially translators in the field of literature, or poetry more
specifically, benefit a great deal from the book because the translating process always
involves a lot of border-crossing which was successfully overcome in the translating
process of the book with the close cooperation between the author and an American writer.
The translating process was described by Martha Collins as “usually, Lap would create a
rough English version of a poem, while I would use my limited Vietnamese and several
Vietnamese-English dictionaries to create a word-for-word “trot”, at the same time
listening to both the order and the rhythm of the Vietnamese words. Informed by this
process, I would work with his version until I had a draft that satisfied me, which I would
then send to him, usually with questions-and so forth, until we both were happy.” This, on
one side should tell how much effort was made by the translators to keep the English
translation of the poems closest to their original; on the other side also reflects how
difficult the border crossing was, and that the adaptation, or changes are essential to bring
the poems to the readers in American society and culture.

Selection of subjects
In order to conduct this study, the researcher has employed both Vietnamese and English
versions of the poems in the book. The research subjects in this study have been chosen

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under the procedure of information-oriented sampling, as opposed to random sampling.
Through the 42 poems of the book which were divided into 3 sections: The Universe and I,
Night Flight, Road on the Earth, the researcher has remarked …….. differences between
the English translation and the Vietnamese original version which were then studied
separately under 2 categories of influencing factors. This size of the samples could
somehow be considered eligible enough for the researcher to carry out a reliable study.
2. Research methods
To conduct the study, the researcher has employed two methods namely quantitative and
qualitative ones. The combination of these two methods has offered the researcher valid
data for later analysis.
Regarding the aim of the study, the researcher has found that quantitative is the most
feasible method to deal with the research problems. It is because in the social sciences,
quantitative research refers to the systematic empirical investigation of quantitative
properties and phenomena and their relationships. The objective of quantitative research is
to develop and employ mathematical models, theories and/ or hypotheses pertaining to
phenomena. The process of measurement is central to quantitative research because it
provides the fundamental connection between empirical observation and mathematical
expression of quantitative relationships.
Besides, qualitative research is a method of inquiry employed in many different academic
disciplines, traditionally in the social sciences, but also in market research and further
contexts. Qualitative researcher aims to gather an in-depth understanding of human
behavior and the reasons that govern such behavior. The qualitative method investigates

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the why and how of the linguistic and socio-cultural factors’ influences on the translation,
not just what, where, when. Hence, smaller but focused samples are more often needed,
rather than large samples.
3. Data collection procedures
The data collection procedure has been divided into two successive phases.
Phase 1:
This phase has concentrated mainly on reading 42 poems of Ngo Tu Lap’s “Black Stars”
which were doubled in number because the book is bilingual. On the left page is
Vietnamese original version of each poem, and the page on the right is the translation in
English. To be more specific, the researcher has spent a lot of time reading, comparing
then paying special attention to the phenomena where there are remarkable differences
between the 2 versions.
Phase 2:
After reading carefully, the researcher has taken notes all the phenomena of consideration,
consulted both the author and the translator about some vague phenomena, then built the
framework to categorize them into 2 separate domains. Simultaneously, prominent
examples of each domain have been noted down to exemplify the researcher’s later
analysis.
4. Data analysis procedures
First, the researcher has studied the original Vietnamese version to investigate when each
adaptation was made, and the reasons for it.

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The verbal data then have been interpreted into subtypes of linguistic or socio-cultural
problems. As observed, there are five types of changes for adaptation (of both domains)

that are most commonly used by the American translator.
Finally, the researcher has analyzed reasons for the phenomena found, both linguistic and
socio-cultural factors.

CHAPTER III: FINDINGDS AND DISCUSSIONS
THE INFLUENCE OF LINGUISTIC AND SOCIO-CULTURAL FACTORS
ON THE TRANSLATION

I. LINGUISTIC FACTORS (TÁC ĐỘNG CỦA CÁC YẾU TỐ NGÔN NGỮ ĐẾN
BẢN DỊCH)
I.1. Changes in grammar
I.1.1. Changes in the order of word groups
Một câu tiếng Việt hiện nay có thể được phân tích theo nhiều phương pháp. Phổ biến
nhất là bốn phương pháp sau: (1) theo cấu trúc chủ - vị (ngữ pháp truyền thống), (2) theo cấu
trúc vị từ - tham thể (ngữ pháp ngữ nghĩa), (3) theo cấu trúc đề - thuyết (ngữ pháp chức
năng), và (4) theo cấu trúc cái cho sẵn - cái mới (lý thuyết phân đoạn thực tại). Các phương
pháp này được xây dựng dựa trên ba bình diện nghiên cứu câu: kết học, nghĩa học và dụng
học. Trong đó, phân tích câu theo cấu trúc chủ - vị thuộc bình diện kết học của câu, cấu trúc vị

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từ - tham thể thuộc bình diện nghĩa học, cấu trúc cái cho sẵn - cái mới thuộc bình diện dụng
học. Cũng theo đó nhóm từ trong câu cũng sẽ là một thành tố của câu. Tuy nhiên trong phạm
vi luận văn này chúng tôi không bàn đến việc cấu trúc của câu tiếng Việt, chúng tôi muốn
hướng tới một đặc điểm trong q trình chuyển dịch hai ngơn ngữ đối với thơ của Ngô Tự Lập
là những thay đổi trong thứ tự của nhóm từ. Tất nhiên, điều sự thay đổi của thứ tự nhóm từ liên
quan đến đặc điểm của cấu trúc ngữ pháp do từng ngôn ngữ quy định. Tiếng Việt là loại ngôn
ngữ đơn lập không biến hình, từ trong câu xuất hiện theo trật tự tuyến tính nên thường đi theo
đường thẳng, cịn tiếng Anh là ngơn ngữ biến hình, để thể hiện q khứ, hiện tại hay tương lai

là do sự thay đổi của động từ trong câu. Cấu trúc của một cụm từ cũng khác nhau. Ví dụ, theo
tiếng Việt, chúng ta sẽ nói hoa hồng đỏ nhưng tiếng Anh chúng ta nói rằng red rose. Từ cấu
trúc dịch ngược so với tiếng Việt này, chúng tôi thấy rất cần thiết phải quan tâm đến vấn đề
tương đương trong dịch thuật (equivalence translation).
Tương đương dịch thuật là mối quan hệ giữa ngữ nguồn và ngữ đích mà cho phép ngữ
đích được coi là sự chuyển dịch của ngữ nguồn. Koller (1979), đưa ra năm loại tương đương
dịch thuật như sau:
- Tương đương biểu niệm (denotative equivalence): quan hệ tương đương được xem là
hướng tới hiện thực ngồi ngơn ngữ.
- Tương đương biểu thái (connotative equivalence): loại tương đương này liên quan
đến các phạm trù như phong cách, địa lí, xã hội.
- Tương đương chuẩn văn bản (text-normative equivalence): những từ trong ngôn ngữ
nguồn và ngơn ngữ đích được sử dụng trong cùng ngơn cảnh trong các ngôn ngữ tương ứng.
- Tương đương ngữ dụng (pragmatic equivalence): là quan hệ tương đương liên quan
đến đối tượng tiếp nhận văn bản.
- Tương đương hình thức (formal equivalence): là việc tạo ra sự tương đương về hình
thức (mẫu)`trong khi dịch bằng cách tạo ra các mẫu mới trong ngơn ngữ đích.
Như đã biết, chuyển dịch từ ngôn ngữ này sang ngôn ngữ khác là một vấn đề khơng hề
đơn giản bởi nó khơng những địi hỏi người dịch phải có tri thức về ngơn ngữ mà cịn có tri
thức về văn hóa, tâm lí xã hội. Khi nói đến người ăn được nhiều, người Việt thường dùng hai
hình ảnh “thùng, vại” hoặc con vật “th̀ng l̀ng” để ví ‘ăn thùng ́ng vại/ ăn như thuồng
luồng’ . Trong khi đó người Anh lại ví người ăn nhiều là: ‘ăn như ngựa’ (eat like a horse).
Nói đến sự khác biệt lớn giữa hai người hoặc hai sự việc, người Việt dùng hình ảnh ‘trời va
vực’ để ví như ‘James va John khác nhau một trời một vực’. Trong khi đó người Mĩ (tiếng

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