A Critical Study of Nicole Medjigbodo’s Translation Strategies in Femi Osofisan’s Once Upon Four Robbers

Abstract

This study aims at determining the prominent translation strategies employed by Nicole Medjigbodo in Femi Osofisan’s Once upon Four Robbers. African literature just like other forms of literature cannot be totally comprehended without some of its ethical, linguistic and translation reflections. It can, therefore, be safely asserted without any fear of contradiction that to talk about literature is to reiterate about language and the stance of its translation as a masterpiece. However, this simple assertion becomes problematic when it is applied to the translation of African literature written in English language with indigenous thought system and cultural episteme. Considering the theory and practice of translation, this paper considers analyses and discusses the source text (ST), and the target text (TT) comparing and contrasting their points of convergence and divergence. The paper adopts dynamic-equivalent theory of translation. This theory sees a literary text as a cultural product that should be read and understood within a specific cultural matrix. The paper observes that the source text (Once upon Four Robbers) reflects culture of the playwright, particularly in the use of folkloric elements and embellished indigenous thoughts while the target text (IL ÉTAIT UNE FOIS QUATRE VOLEURS) lacks some of the folkloric elements and embellished indigenous thoughts. The paper, therefore, concludes that the source and the target texts in translation cannot have the same aesthetic qualities owing to the factors of linguistic specificity and variance in stylistic approaches.

Keywords:  Translation, dynamic equivalent theory of translation, Once upon Four Robbers, Forms and Meaning