Instituto de Educación Superior Nº 28 “Olga Cossettini”

Traductorado Técnico y Científico en Inglés

1er año
Práctica General de la Traducción e Interpretación I
Profesora Aida Gryn

Practical Work
Difficulties in translation

PROVERBS

”A proverb never lies, it is only its meaning which deceives”

Florencia Arcocha
Fernando Gutierrez
Evangelina Maglione
Paula Sozzi Alemany
____________________________________________________________________

Fecha de presentación: 15 de Septiembre de 2008

CONTENTS

I. INTRODUCTION ……………………………..…………………………….... 3

II. WHAT IS TRANSLATION? …………………………………………………. 4

III. WHAT ARE PROVERBS? ………………………………………................ 6

1. Origins…………………………………………………………………………………6
2. What makes a proverb become a proverb………………………………………..6
3. Trying to define a proverb ………………………………………………………….7
4. Types of proverbs …………………………………………………………………..8
5. The importance of culture …………………………………………………………..9
IV. PROVERBS TRANSLATION……………………………………………… 10

V. CLASS ACTIVITIES ………………………………………………………… 13

VI. CONCLUSION ……………………………………………………………….15

BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………....16
INTRODUCTION

The aim of this work is to deal with proverbs as one of the difficulties in translation. First, we will
start by defining what translation is according to different authors, and what strategies are used
to get to a proper translation. Then, we consider what a proverb is, its origins, how it is used, its
context, and its cultural meaning. We hope, along this work to come up with the answers to all
these questions.

The translation of proverbs from one language into another is something that we mostly focus
on in this work.
One of the first things we have to take into account is that proverbs are often borrowed from
different languages and cultures, and sometimes come down to the present through more than
one language. Moreover, in the study of proverbs many questions arouse our attention such as:
the bibliography of proverbs; the assemblage of new materials and the availability of old
sources; the origin, history, influence, reliability; the individual and social interpretation and the
evaluation of their changing form.

At first sight translation may seem a simple job to carry out just if we just consider that
“translation” is when one text is written in a different language. However, it involves more than
that. We should consider the sender, the receiver, the context, the co-text and, of course, the
message itself. All these may involve a great deal of difficulty; nevertheless, the most
challenging aspect when translating a proverb is: culture. As proverbs are often borrowed from
different languages almost every culture has examples of its own. Thus, one of the areas of
language greatly affected by culture is colloquialism. Within colloquialism, slang, idiomatic
expressions and proverbs play a fundamental role. In this work we will concentrate on these
aspects of language, the difficulties that arise when translating them and some possible
solutions to overcome the problems.

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What is translation?

Many authors have addressed this subject and they have arrived to different definitions:

- “La traducción consiste en reproducir en la lengua receptora (llamada también lengua

terminal) el mensaje de la lengua fuente (o lengua original) por medio del equivalente más
próximo y más natural, primero en lo que se refiere al sentido , y luego en lo que atañe al
estilo.”
Taber y Nida; (La traducción: thèorie et mèthoide, Londres, 1971, pág.11)

-“Traducir es enunciar en otra lengua (o lengua meta) lo que ha sido enunciado en una
lengua fuente (lengua original), conservando las equivalencias semánticas y estilísticas.”
Dictionaire de Linguistique par Jean Dubois et antres, Paris, 1973.

According to Peter Newmark: ”It is rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the
way that the author intended the text. In many types of text (legal, administrative, dialect, local ,
cultural) the temptation is to transfer as many SL (source language) words to the TL (target
language) as possible.” (1988: 4)
A text may therefore be pulled in ten different directions:

1 SL writer 9 The truth (the facts of the matter) 5 TL readership

2 SL norms 6 TL norms

TEXT

3 SL culture 7 TL culture

4 SL setting and tradition 8 TL setting and tradition

10 translator
According to García Yebra in his book Teoría y práctica de la traducción (1997); translation
consists of two fases:
a) la comprensión del texto original
b) la expresión de su mensaje, de su contenido en la lengua receptora.
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a) En la fase de la comprensión del texto original el traductor desarrolla una actividad
semasiológica (del griego “relativo al sentido, al significado”) en esa fase el traductor busca el
sentido del texto original.
La comprensión es indispensable para la traducción, ya que en esta fase el traductor se
diferencia del lector común por la intención y la intensidad de su lectura. El lector común llega a
término de su viaje cuando ha captado el contenido del texto. Mientras que el que lee como
traductor, tiene la intención de no detenerse en esa meta, piensa en emprender el camino
inverso; irá desde el contenido del texto original hasta los signos lingüísticos capaces de
expresarlo, que suele ser la lengua propia del traductor.

b) En la fase de la expresión, la actividad del traductor es onomasiológica, (del griego “relativo

al nombre”). El traductor busca ahora en la lengua terminal las palabras, las expresiones para
reproducir en esta lengua el contenido del texto original.

Friedrich Schleiermacher states that there are two ways to get to a proper translation:
“El primero: el traductor intentaría comunicar a sus lectores la misma impresión que él,
forastero en la lengua del autor, ha recibido al leer el texto original.
El segundo: el traductor trataría de presentar la obra a sus lectores como si el autor la hubiera
escrito en la lengua de éstos.”(qtd. in García Yebra, 1997:42)

According to Mathew Arnold (poeta lírico) “Una traducción debe producir en sus lectores el
mismo efecto que el original en los suyos,”.”(Ibid. 42)

“La regla de oro para toda traducción es, a mi juicio, decir todo lo que dice el original,
no decir nada que el original no diga, y decirlo todo con la corrección y naturalidad que permita
la lengua a la que se traduce. La dificultad reside en aplicar las tres al mismo tiempo”.
García Yebra (prólogo XXVII edición trilingüe de la Metafísica de Aristóteles, 1970)

The translator must know thoroughly the grammar, the semantics and the syntax, not only of the
source language, but also of the target language.
Translation is not simply a word-for-word correspondence between any two languages. It greatly
comprehends the context, writing conventions, and the most important aspect: culture.

Newmark defines culture as “the way of life and its manifestations that are peculiar to a
community that uses a particular language as its means of expression.” (1988:94)
Every culture has its particular language and context where colloquialism mirrors the most of
that culture. Puns, slang, jokes, idiomatic expressions and PROVERBS are some of the
examples of it. More often than not a translator finds it difficult to render a colloquial expression
from a SL into a TL. 5
What are Proverbs?

Origins

A considerable part of the well-known proverbs may be traced back e. g. in Europe to Greco-
Roman classics and the Hebrew and Greek Bible, (Taylor 1931. p. 52-65.) to Aristotle, Old
Testament, Benjamin Franklin in 1748. In the Far-East the literary sources are mainly the
Chinese classics, the Historical Records (Shi Ji), the Book of Zhuang Zi and the Confucian
Analects (Lun Yu), and in part to some Sanskrit classic, like the Panchatantra, the Nirvana
Sutra etc. (Paczolay 1994. p. 135.).

In the specific case of English proverbs, the main sources or ‘borrowings’ are from: Latin,
French or Spanish (e.g.: ‘Cherchez la femme’, ‘In vino veritas’), the Bible (e.g.: ‘You cannot
serve God and mammon’, ‘The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak’), Shakespeare (e.g.:
‘Cowards die many times before their deaths’), but also: Herrick (e.g.: ‘Gather ye rosebuds
while ye may’), Pope (‘A little learning is a dangerous thing’), Gray (e.g.: ‘Where ignorance is
bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise’) and Keats (e.g.: ‘A thing of beauty is a joy forever’), among others.
In the process of folklorization the sources have fallen into oblivion and in due time - sometimes
in a slightly changed form - the quotations became genuine proverbs.

What makes a proverb become a proverb?

According to Ronald Ridout and Clifford Witting to become a proverb, a saying has to be tasken
up and assimilated by the common people. In the process, its origin is forgotten.
It is safe to assume that every proverb had an origin in a specific person or specific situation,
but with many of the very old ones this origin has been completely lost. In the numerous
proverbs that summarize everyday experience, the saying probably did grow gradually onto its
proverbial form without any one single originator. It is therefore legitimate and convenient to say
that proverbs have a popular origin; that they have their source in the collective wisdom of the
people.
On the other hand, it is equally evident that many other proverbs have had their origin in a
specific wise man. If it was in a wise man of oral tradition, we shall of course have no recorded
evidence, but if it was in a wise man whose thoughts were written down, we can sometimes
trace the source. (e.g.: ‘The wish is father to the thought’, which as far as we know was first
given expression to by Julius Caesar, or ‘A soft answer turneth away wrath’, which certainly took
that precise form from the Bible). Yet, who is to say that these proverbs weren’t already part of
the oral tradition long before they made their first appearance in print? Apparently, ‘There is
nothing new under the sun’. 6
Trying to define a proverb

To translate a proverb and understand the difficulties implied in its translation, the first thing wen
need to do is understand what a proverb is.

Many authors have denied the possibility of defining proverbs (Mieder, 1989; Taylor, 1931;
Kuusi, 1957; Jones 1988)

However, there are several definitions given by many others:

in literature

In the 12th century Mathieu de Vendôme (quoted by Bautier 1984) wrote that "A proverb is
a popular phrase, accredited by custom, accepted by the general opinion, expressing a truth
that has been proved genuine."

from Wikipedia:

A proverb (from the Latin proverbium), is a simple and concrete saying popularly known and
repeated, which expresses a truth, based on common sense or the practical experience of
humanity.

Some short definitions:

- "A proverb is a short sentence of wisdom." (Quoted by Mieder 1989. p. 15.)

- "A proverb is a general statement or judgement, explaining, classifying or assessing a

situation. "(Harald Burger, quoted by W. Mieder 1977. p. 2.)

- "Proverbs are popular fixed sentences expressing a rule of conduct or wisdom in a

vivid, short form." (Röhrich-Mieder 1977. p. 2.)

More complex definitions

- A prominent proverb scholar in the United States is Wolfgang Mieder (he has written or
edited over 50 books on the subject, edits the journal Proverbium, has written innumerable
7
- articles on proverbs, and is very widely cited by other proverb scholars), Mieder defines
the term proverb as follows: "Proverbs are short, generally known sentences of the folk
that contain wisdom, truths, morals, and traditional views in a metaphorical, fixed and
memorizable form and that are handed down orally from generation to generation."
(Mieder 1985:119; also in Mieder 1993:24, Mieder 1996. p. 597.)

Professor Gyula Paczolay (University of Veszprém, Hungary): “A proverb is a short standard

statement (sometimes allowing for one or a few standard variants too), having an evident or
implied general meaning, related to a certain typical field of general human conditions, attitudes
or actions, where it is valid with implied limitations [...] sometimes in a short form [...] In
common knowledge it has no known author or literary source.

From all this vast amount of information, we thought it would be wise to list the common
elements found in most of the definitions:

popular
custom/traditional
known
currency
oral
anonymus (in common knowledge)
truth/wisdom/meaning
experience/common sense
moral
antiquity
short/concise
simple
one sentence
standard text (variants)
memorizable

Types of proverbs
- According to the size of the area where a proverb is known, we may distinguish universal
(comparing proverbs of culturally unrelated parts of the world, one finds several ones having not
only the same basic idea but the form of expression), regional (in culturally related regions - on
the pattern of loan-words e. g. regional European, Far-Eastern or Black-African) and local
proverbs (in a cultural region) (Paczolay, Hungary, Veszprem University, Retired Professor,
Oral Presentations at the 1996 Tokyo International Proverb).
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- In some cases there is no doubt about the meaning of a proverb (literal meaning), like "You
never know what you can do till you try", in others it indicates a belated, futile action (the
implied meaning), like “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”.

- When the reference to the general meaning /idea is direct it is called a maxim-type proverb,
and when it is implied, a metaphoric proverb.

The importance of culture

Proverbs are often borrowed across lines of language, religion, and even time. (For example, a
proverb of the approximate form “No flies enter a mouth that is shut” is currently found in Spain,
Ethiopia, and many countries in between.)
¿Why does this happen?
This is due to two main reasons:
- First, they are similar because we are one only human race. People from all the continents
face the same problems in life. Humans from all over the world have the same body, the same
emotions, the same hormones. It is not only the fact of having the same physical characteristics
that makes all proverbs alike, there are also social influences. We all have to deal with our
work, with our needs, and with our interpersonal relations.
- There is another reason why proverbs are the same or very much alike in many countries. The
proverbs from many different countries have inherited a great deal from their history in common.
(For example, in Latin people would say "Sapienti satis verbum". In Spanish it is "Al buen
entendedor pocas palabras"; in English, "A word to the wise is sufficient.)

However there are differences in the proverbs of different communities because of the
environment in which they live in. Eskimoshave proverbs that have to do with snow and people
from tropical regions base their sayings on the wildlife that sorrounds them. Further differences
stem from the communities’ different idiosincracy. (For example: In some places it is: "mal de
muchos, consuelo de todos” and in others: “mal de muchos, consuelo de tontos"

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PROVERBS TRANSLATION

In this work, we attempt to deal with the translation of proverbs by dividing them into four
categories according to what you might can come across with.

A) proverbs that are similar in Spanish

B) proverbs that are very different in Spanish

English Proverbs

C) more than one version in Spanish

D) Different meaning in Spanish

A) 1- “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”

“A caballo regalado no se le miran los dientes”
Meaning: Don't be ungrateful when you receive a gift.

2- “A cat in gloves catches no mice”

“Gato con guantes no caza ratones”
Meaning: Not getting what you want by being careful and polite.

3- “It takes two to tango”

“Se necesitan dos para bailar el tango”
Meaning: two people in a fight are both responsible for that fight or in other words a conflict is not
the fault of just one person or the other; they are often both to blame

4- “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”

“Más vale pájaro en mano que cien volando”
Meaning: It's better to have a small actual advantage than the chance of a greater one.
5- “Don’t put the cart before the horse”
“No pongas el carro adelante del caballo”
Meaning: Begin at the proper place; do things in their proper order.

B) 1- “You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear”

“Aunque la mona se vista de seda, mona queda”
Meaning: If something isn't very good to start with, you can't do much to improve it.
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 2- “It never rains but it pours”
“Las desgracias nunca vienen solas”
Meaning: When troubles come they come together.

3- “People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones”

“No hagas a los demás lo que no quieres que te hagan a tí”
Meaning: We shouldn’t complain about others if we are as bad as they are.

4- “You can’t unscramble an egg”

“Lo hecho, hecho está”
Meaning: Some processes are irreversible.

5- “Hunt with cats and you catch only rats”

“Dime con quién andas y te diré quien eres”
Meaning: you should choose you allies wisely

C) 1- “Don’t judge a book by its cover”

a) “No juzgues a un libro por su portada”
b) “Las apariencias engañas”
Meaning: before you can judge something, you need to take a deeper, closer look at it.

2- “Barking dogs never bite”

a) “Perro que ladra no muerde”
b) “Perro ladrador, poco mordedor”
Meaning: a man who utters threats in a loud voice, or is given to noisy boasting, need not be taken
seriously.

3- “Don’t put your eggs in one basket”

a) “No pongas todos los huevos en una canasta”
b) “No juegues todo a una carta”
Meaning: don't risk everything all at once

4- “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”

a) “Una manzana al día mantiene alejado al doctor”
b) “Más vale prevenir que curar”
Meaning: Eating healthy food keeps you healthy.
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 5- “Too many cooks spoil the broth”
a) “Muchas manos en un plato hacen mucho garabato”
b) “Demasiados cocineros estropean el plato”
Meaning: When too many people work together on a project, the result is inferior.
D) “Close only counts in horseshoes”
“Lo importante es competir”
Meaning: In the game of horseshoes, if the horseshoe lands within a certain distance of the target, it
gets a point. accuracy is only moderately necessary.

Suggested possible steps in the process of proverbs translation

To identify that a certain phrase is a proverb by its form (writing features): italics,
between inverted commas, etc.
by its content: inherent or
distinctive characteristics: it has a moral lesson, it's popular, etc.

it may happen that:

there is a Spanish equivalent There is not a spanish equivalent or we

could not find one
Find the equivalent (taking into account the
translation's recepient: Spanish, Mexican, etc.), - Literal translation
using any of the following means: - Free translation or innovation
- Explanation of the meaning of the proverb
- An English Proverbs Book or Webpage with
their Spanish equivalents
- Bilingual Dictionary (content words)
- To analize the proverb by ourselves or by
using a monolingual English proverbs
explained book to understand the meaning of
the proverb in order to get to a Spanish
equivalent (only for Argentinian spoken
proverbs)

How do we express the translation of the proverb in the written form?:

- Write the Spanish equivalent (leaving the - Write a literal (leaving the italics or inverted
italics or inverted commas) commas ) or free translation (leaving out the
- Write the Spanish equivalent (leaving the italiocs or inverted commas), with a translator’s
italics or inverted commas), with a translator’s foot note writing the original English proverb
foot note, writing the original English proverb and explaining its meaning
and explaining its meaning
 CLASS ACTIVITY

1. Ask the students to look at the chart carefully and ask them to match the proverb
with its meaning and its possible Spanish translation.

  Key
PROVERB MEANING POSSIBLE SPANISH
TRANSLATION
After a storm comes a calm. Since something better must Siempre después de la
follow an unpleasant event, tormenta, le sucede la calma.
be optimistic.

All roads lead to Rome People can arrive at the same Todas los caminos conducen
conclusion by different a Roma.
means.

Bad news travels fast Information about unpleasant Las malas noticias llegan
happenings spreads quickly. rápido.

Birds of a feather flock People with similar interests Dios los cría, y el viento los
together and tastes tend to group. amontona.

Charity begins at home. Provide help first to one's La caridad bien entendida
family members and then to comienza por casa.
others.

Do as you would be done by Treat others as you would No hagas a los demás lo que
expect them to treat you. no te gusta que te hagan a ti.

Don't cross a bridge till you One should not worry before No cantes victoria antes de
come to it. something happens for it may tiempo
never happen
First come, first served. If one arrives early, one gets a El que parte y reparte recibe
better choice. la mejor parte

 He laughs best who   Don't express your joy, or El que ríe ultimo, ríe
laughs last. your triumph, too soon! mejor.

Better safe than sorry It is preferable to be Es mejor prevenir que curar

cautious than be rash and get
into trouble.

Better be alone than in bad Be careful in the choice of the Mejor solo que mal
company. people you associate with. acompañado

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 2. The following is a collection of traditional proverbs we have taken from the Internet
We can ask them:
Do any of these proverbs exist in your own language? If so, translate them.
If not , try to explain the meaning of the proverb and infer the Spanish translation from it.

( We can also divide the class into six or seven groups and give them 3 or 4 proverbs each
one)

 A stitch in time saves nine.

 Better late than never.  A friend in need is a friend
 Don't cry over spilt milk. indeed.
 Early to bed and early to rise  One man's meat is another
makes a man healthy, man's poison.
 wealthy and wise.  Out of sight, out of mind.
 Every cloud has a silver lining.  Rome wasn't built in a day.
 God helps those who help  The best way to a man's
themselves. heart is through his
 Half a loaf is better than no stomach.
bread. Make hay while the sun  The end justifies the
shines means.
 Necessity is the mother of  The grass is always greener
invention. on the other side of the
 Never put off till tomorrow what fence.
you can do today.  Two heads are better than
 The apple doesn’t fall far from one.
the tree  Waste not, want not.
 It's the last straw that breaks  When in Rome, do as the
the camel's back. Romans do.
 Give a dog a bad name and  You can lead a horse to
hang it. water, but you cannot
 Nothing ventured, nothing make 
gained him drink.
 Let sleeping dogs lie.

14

Conclusion
As any other type of translation, proverbs involve a deep knowledge of both the source
language and the target language as well as the contexts in which they are used. However, we
may say that proverbs translation is a much more complex process than any other ordinary
translation, since it requires a strong knowledge of culture and a good use of translation
methods. It is even more difficult when there is not a possible literal or equivalent translation.
Particularly, those in the area of “ everyday expressions”. Consequently, creativity and a
general knowledge of both cultures are the most important elements to achieve a suitable result.
Moreover it is refreshing to find out that sometimes people around the world, are united by the
collective homespun wisdom expressed in proverbs. As proverbs are a rich source of
readymade philosophy for almost any aspect of human activity, we are almost sure that, most of
the times, you will find one in the TL that best suits the occasion, and when that is not possible –
always considering the context where it is used - apply to the power of you creativity and
imagination.

“Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere”

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Libros

NEWMARK, Peter (1988): “A Text Book Of Translation”. Hertfordshire. Ed. Prentice Hall
international (UK) Ltd.

GARCÍA YEBRA, Valentín (1997): “Teoría y práctica de la traducción”. Madrid. Ed.Gredos, SA

RIDOUT, Ronald ; WITTING, Clifford (1978): “English Proverbs Explained”. London. Ed. Pan.

III CONGRESO LATINOAMERICANO DE TRADUCCIÓN E INTERPRETACIÓN, Tomo I: “De Babel

a Internet” (2001). Ed. Colegio de Traductores Públicos de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires.

MERINO, Ana; TAYLOR, Susan (2007): “Refranes ingleses para estudiantes de inglés/ A Handbook
of English Proverbs”. Anglo Didactica Publishing.

BUCAY, Jorge (2002): “El Camino del Encuentro. Colección Hojas de Ruta”. Bs.As. Ed.
Sudamericana

Diccionarios

Oxford SPANISH Dictionary (2003). Ed. OXFORD University Press.

Oxford Superlex para Windows (1996). Ed. OXFORD University Press.

Mac Millan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners (2002). Ed. Mac Millan Publishers Limited.

Páginas webs

http://www. es.wikipedia.org

http://www.inglésparalatinos.com

http://www.cogweb.ucla.edu

http://www.translatorscafe.com

http://www.culturitalia.uibk.ac.at

http://www.proz.com

http://www.wordreference.com

http://www.merriam-webster.com

Ensayos

GÓMEZ JIMENO, Clara, “La importancia de enseñar la cultura en el aprendizaje de un idioma”,

“TOLEITOLA”, Revista de Educación del CeP (Centro de Profesores) de Toledo Nº8, 2006
http://cprtoledo.com/modules/Documentos/data/aprendiizajeIdioma.pdf

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Artículos y publicaciones

PACZOLAY, Gyula (University of Veszprém, Hungary). “Some Notes on the Theory of Proverbs”
http://www.vein.hu/library/proverbs/some.htm

ERICHSEN, Gerald. “How Do You Translate This Proverb?”

http://www. spanish.about.com/cs/translation/f/translquestion.htm

Abstracts

Abstracts Of Oral Presentations at the 1996 Tokyo International Proverb Forum (WANG QIN (China,
Xiangtan University, Professor): “Racial Characteristics Of Proverbs”; PACZOLAY, GYULA
(Hungary, Veszprem University, Retired Professor): “Universal, Regional And Local Proverbs”)
http://cogweb.ucla.edu/Abstracts/TokyoForum_96.html

Interviews

Sheridan Cranmer, native speaker of American English (62). Profession: lawyer.

He lives in the United States in Los Angeles and he was consulted on some of the everyday usage
of proverbs, their origin, and meaning.

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