Nghiên cứu tương đương dịch thuật giữa một số bài thơ Nhật ký trong tù (Bản tiếng Việt) và bản dịch tiếng Anh tương ưng của Aileen Palmer theo quan điểm của Mona Baker (1992)

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

LÊ THỊ NHUNG

A STUDY ON TRANSLATION EQUIVALENCE BETWEEN SOME POEMS
OF PRISON DIARY (VIETNAMESE VERSION) AND ITS ENGLISH
TRANSLATION BY AILEEN PALMER ON FORM-BASED APPROACH
OF MONA BAKER (1992)
NGHIÊN CỨU TƢƠNG ĐƢƠNG DỊCH THUẬT GIỮA MỘT SỐ BÀI THƠ
NHẬT KÝ TRONG TÙ ( BẢN TIẾNG VIỆT) VÀ BẢN DỊCH TIẾNG ANH
TƢƠNG ỨNG CỦA AILEEN PALMER THEO QUAN ĐIỂM CỦA MONA
BAKER (1992)

M.A. COMBINED PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics
Code: 60220201

Hanoi - 2016


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

LÊ THỊ NHUNG

A STUDY ON TRANSLATION EQUIVALENCE BETWEEN SOME POEMS
OF PRISON DIARY (VIETNAMESE VERSION) AND ITS ENGLISH

TRANSLATION BY AILEEN PALMER ON FORM-BASED APPROACH
OF MONA BAKER (1992)
NGHIÊN CỨU TƢƠNG ĐƢƠNG DỊCH THUẬT GIỮA MỘT SỐ BÀI THƠ
NHẬT KÝ TRONG TÙ ( BẢN TIẾNG VIỆT) VÀ BẢN DỊCH TIẾNG ANH
TƢƠNG ỨNG CỦA AILEEN PALMER THEO QUAN ĐIỂM CỦA MONA
BAKER (1992)

M.A. COMBINED PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics
Code: 60220201
Supervisor: Assoc.Prof. Dr. Nguyễn Xuân Thơm

Hanoi - 2016


DECLARATION
I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report
entitled “A study on translation equivalence between some poems of Prison Diary
(Vietnamese version) and its English translation by Aileen Palmer on form-based
approach of Mona Baker (1992)” submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Master in English Linguistics. Except where the
reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due
acknowledgement in the text of the thesis.
Hanoi, 2016

Lê Thị Nhung

1

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This thesis could not have been completed without the help and support from
a number of people.
First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Assoc. Prof.
Dr. Nguyen Xuan Thom, my supervisor, who has patiently and constantly supported
me through the stages of the study, and whose stimulating ideas, expertise, and
suggestions have inspired me greatly through my growth as an academic researcher.
A special word of thanks goes to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Le Hung Tien; without his
interesting lectures on Research Methodology in Applied Linguistics and
Translation Studies, consultancy and encouragement, it would never have been
possible for me to have this thesis accomplished.
Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family for the endless sacrifice
they have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work.

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ABSTRACT
Given that translation equivalence lies at the center of what translation is
and the translation of Prison Diary has posed both interests and challenges, the
researcher conducted a study, investigating types of form-based equivalence
proposed by Mona Baker (1992) between thirty Prison Diary poems and theirs
translated versions by Aileen Palmer as well as some obstacles encountered by the
translator. Pairs of data were compared, contrasted and interpreted into different
categories. Three prevalent types of non-equivalence have been identified, including
that at the level of word, above word, and grammatically upon careful collection
and interpretative analyses of data from both source texts and target texts. In
coupled with the existence of such non-equivalence, many obstacles were addressed
by the translator due to gaps in both linguistic and literary terms. The paper also

sheds some light on practical applications for translators, and teachers and students
with their work of translation.

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PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
The idea, the question to which the thesis attempts to answer, came from both
linguistic (scientific), practical and situational motivations. To begin with linguistic
reasons, translation has long been a fertile land for research because of its important
role in bridging the world and also recording and building up the history of the
world. Translation theory is extensively regarded one big branch in applied
linguistics that is worth researcher’s intellectual curiosity. It brings about the
attractiveness of different languages to certain human communities. The author
herself constantly holds on to the wonder whether or not translation of poetry is
different from that of other genres, if so, to what extent, and if there is any working
strategy for this special type of translation, especially in the case that it has
something to deal with both linguistic and cultural gaps. Therefore, it is important to
conduct studies on this theory. Practically, as one of the most important and common
fields of translation, the translation of literary works (literary translation) is indeed a
help to the understanding of different cultures and civilizations, so responsible for its
complexity and the must for translator of literature to consider every aspect of the
material and even beyond the material to produce a good translation. Literary
translation in general and the translation of poems between English and Vietnamese
and other ways round have been such a challenging but charming task for me that I
really want to clarify or at least understand the way translators of these works
employ when doing translations. Another practical and inspiring motivation for my
conducting this study is because of the fact that the year 2015 is the 125th celebration
of President Ho Chi Minh’s birthday. I really wish to be knowledgeable of how the

translated versions of his poems have effects on target readers, whether to be the
same to or different from those on Vietnamese counterparts. Last but not least, the
findings of the paper are expected to be helpful in cross-cultural language learning
and teaching.

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In order to evaluate a translation, there is a wide variety of approaches,
procedures, methods, all of which more or less draw assumption and notion of
linguistic deviation and translation equivalence. The latter - equivalence remains the
most interesting to me because it is equivalence that in my opinion conveys or
destroys the effects on the two groups of readers, source language reader, and the
target ones. Naturally, there are many theoretical approaches and previous studies on
this cornerstone concept. The successful evaluation of the translated equivalents in
English by Aileen Palmer is also helpful to the reading, teaching, and translating, and
studying literary works in Vietnam. Lastly, a considerable number of studies have
been conducted on the translation of poems and novels between English and
Vietnamese, the most famous of which are “Gone with the Wind”, “The Old Man
and the Sea”, and “The General Retires”. However, very few studies have made
efforts up to date to understand the rendering of Vietnamese great literary
compositions into English in spite of numerous translated works. This, to my
personal viewpoint, represents a gap in the circle of translation criticism and
evaluation and motivates me to invest my effort into this topic.
2. Aims of the study
The conduct of the study firstly aims at providing a theoretical background on
several concepts related to the topic of the study such as translation, translation
studies, literary translation, and translation equivalence. Subsequently, it made an
investigation into the achievement of equivalence in the translated equivalents by
Aileen Palmer based on Mona Baker’s theory. Equivalence effect can be found at

different aspects, namely quantity, function, and form. Seeing that poems in Prison
Diary remain a great source of literary and translating values, this study employed
the form-based approach to equivalence by Mona Baker (1992) to investigate this
central issue in translation field, equivalence, at both word and above-word levels,
grammatical, textual and pragmatic levels. More specifically, the research aims at
reasoning out:

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- identifying and describing types of equivalence in the approach of Mona Baker and
clarifying the most prevalent ones;
- examining Mona Baker-proposed strategies for dealing with such non-equivalence
employed by the translator;
- clarifying obstacles faced by the translator in rendering the selected poems.
3. Scope of the study
Prison Diary, also known as Reflection in Captivity, encompasses some 133 Tang,
Luc Bat and Ngu ngon poems written by President Ho Chi Minh when he was kept
wrongly in jail in China. Nam Tran, a famous Sino-Vietnamese translator in Viet
Nam, transforms them into Vietnamese. Therefore, the study in nature makes a
comparison between Nam Tran’s translations and Aileen Palmer’s. However, this
study will merely select 30 poems translated by Aileen Palmer for discussion,
analysis and comparison. There have been in reality a few translators of this work,
but Aileen Palmer appeared to have translated creditably almost the whole work
while the others just focus on a modest number of poems from Prison Diary, leading
to my choice of his translation. More importantly, the study, in spite of the title,
made an investigation into existent types of Mona Baker’s form-based nonequivalence and corresponding strategies employed by the translator.
4. Significance of the study
The study is expected to be an effective and useful evaluation of translation
equivalence between the two texts. It results in several theoretical and practical

values, in terms of translation light. Firstly, the study will help reader obtain a better
understanding of explanation on equivalence suggested by Mona Baker through a
wide variety of examples from the two groups of sample poems. Upon reading and
analyzing the English version of Prison Diary, of course, they are likely to acquire
some of effects used by the translator. However, when approaching the whole work
of Prison Diary with some analytical conclusions, the effects will be significantly

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REFERENCES
BOOKS
1.

Baker, M. (1992). In Other Words: A Coursebook on Translation. London

and New York: Routledege.
2.

Bell, R.T. (1991). Translation and translating: Theory and practice. London:

Longman
3.

Bush, P. (1998). Literary Translation. In: M. Baker, (Ed.) Routledge

Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, London: Routledge, pp. 127-130.
4.

Catford, J.C. (1965). .A Linguistic Theory of Translation. London: Oxford

University Press.
5.

Hatim, B. & Mason, I. (1990). Discourse and the Translator. Language in

Social Life Series. London: Longman Group.
6.

Jakobson, R. (1959/2000). On linguistics aspects of translation. In Venuti, L.

(Ed.) (2000). The Translation Studies Reader. London and New York: Routledge,
pp. 113-118.
7.

Koller, W. (1979). Equivalence in Translation Theory. In Chesterman, A. (Ed.)

(1989). Reading in translation theory.
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Lambert, J. (1998). Literary Translation. In: M. Baker, (Ed.) Routledge

Encyclopedia of Translation Studies. London: Routledge, pp. 130-134.
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Landers, C.E. (2001). Topics in Translation. Literary Translation: A Practical

Guide. Cromwell Press Ltd.
10.

Landers, Clifford E. (2001). Literary Translation: A practical Guide. New

Jersey University Press: Multilingual Maters.

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11.

Larson, Mildred L. (1984). Meaning-Based Translation: A Guide to Cross-

Language Equivalence. Lanham and New York: University Press of America, Inc.
12.

Malone, J.L. (1988). The Science of Linguistics in the Art of Translation.

Albany: State University of New York Press.
13.

Munday, J. (2011). Introducting Translation Studies- Theories and

Applications. Routledge.
14.

Nair, S.K. (1991). Translating Poetry: Some Basic Problems”. International

Journal of Translation.
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Newmark, P. (1980), Approaches to Translation. Oxford: Pergamon Press.

16.

Newmark, P. (1988) A Textbook of Translation. New York and London

Prentice- Hall.
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Nida, E.A. and C. R. Taber (1969). The Theory and Practice of Translation.

Leiden: E.J. Brill.
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Richards, J. C. & et al. (1992). Dictionary of Language Teaching &

Applied Linguistics. UK: Longman.
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Savory, T. (1968). The Art of Translation. London: Cape.

20.

Sánchez, M.T. (2009). The Problems of Literary Translation: A Study of the

Theory and Practice of Translation from English into Spanish. Peter Lang.
21.

Tran, Xuan Truong. (2011). An Investigation into Metonymy Denoting

Humans in English and Vietnamese Poetry. M.A. Thesis.

22.

Vanessa, L. (2000). The Role of Pedagogical Translation in Second Language

Acquisition: From Theory to Practice. Peter Lang International Academic Publisher.
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Wilss, Wolfram. (1982). The Science of Translation. Tubingen: Narr.

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ARTICLES
1. Le, Hung Tien. (2010). Tƣơng đƣơng dịch thuật và tƣơng đƣơng trong dịch
Anh-Việt. Tạp chí Khoa học ĐHQGHN, Ngoại ngữ 26, 141-150.
2. Vanessa, L. Equivalence in Translation: Between Myth and Reality. Retrieved
19th May, 2014 from />3.
Li, N. (2008). The Contrast of Chinese and English in the Translation of
Chinese Poetry. Asian Social Science, 4 (12), 105-111.
4. Yinhua, X. (2011). Equivalence in Translation: Features and Necessity.
International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 1 (10), 169-170.
5. />6. />7. Thanh, Do Ngoc. Dậy học làm thơ : Tại sao ta cần đọc thơ và làm thơ?.
Retrieved 4th August, 2015 from />8. />THESIS
1. Pham, Thanh Binh. (2010). Strategies to deal with non-equivalence at word level
in translation. (Published master thesis).
2. Qiu, X. (2012). Translating classical Chinese Poetry into English: Challenges and
A possible solution - A Case Study of Translating Lipo's Grievance on Jaded Steps.
(Published

master

thesis).

Retrieved

23rd

/>
9

May,

2015

from


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