©Fernando Romeu (1998)

fromeu at tinet.org
The Translation of American Varieties in Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Abstract

The problem of the translation of American varieties in Huckleberry Finn has been tackled in different ways. Nobody has succeeded in portraying the seven different varieties that can be found in the original text. The aim of this assignment is to present several different ways of tackling the problem, to identify their shortcomings and to present possible solutions. Three translations of Huckleberry Finn (into Spanish and into Catalan) are compared by commenting on how they translate the same passage of the source text.  The results show that there is not a completely satisfactory way of translating the American varieties in Huckleberry Finn. They also show that the difficulty does not only lie on linguistic issues, but also on contextual and cultural ones.


NOTA:

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 1.-Introduction
Translating a novel is always a difficult and risky enterprise, but sometimes it can be more difficult than usual. One of the difficulties is the translation of  varieties. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a good example of this problem. Since it has been - and still is - a widely read book, there are many translations of it. These translations tackle the problem of varieties differently. I think this is interesting, because it may exemplify different ways of understanding literary translation.
I will review three different ways of translating the American varieties in Huckleberry Finn. I will use four books: one of the latest American editions of Huckleberry  Finn, two Spanish translations of the work (one from 1949 and another from 1981), and a 1979 Catalan translation . A proposal for a future translation of Huckleberry  Finn will also be reviewed.
I will select some excerpts from Huckleberry Finn to exemplify the use of varieties in it. Then the translations of these excerpts will be reviewed. I intend to focus on the comparison between the original text and Fontcuberta's translation of it, because this translation is the only one that attempts to translate a variety in the original text.
The authenticity of the portrayal of varieties in both the original text and its translation will also be examined. To do so, some excerpts from the texts will be compared to the features of the varieties that they are supposed to represent.
 2.- The Varieties in Huckleberry Finn : Twain's Effort to Portray Them and the Translators' Problems Translating  Them
In Huckleberry Finn, between a "Notice" and the "Table of Contents" (Twain 1996:XXI), there is a note entitled "Explanatory" in which the author briefly explains that a number of dialects are intentionally used and that this has been done painstakingly. The author also says that he makes this explanation because without it "many readers would suppose that all these characters were trying to talk alike and not succeeding"(Twain 1996:XXI). The varieties in Huckleberry Finn are the Missouri Negro dialect, the extremest form of the backwoods South-Western dialect, the ordinary Pike Country dialect, and four modified varieties of the last mentioned.
The labels of these varieties show that, unless readers know them very well, most of them are going to be difficult to distinguish, except for the Missouri Negro dialect. So, in spite of the fact that the book contains seven varieties and that the author tells us that this is important, readers and translators may be tempted not to take these varieties into consideration and therefore they will not try to identify them or to translate them.
But if a translator decides not to translate the varieties, s/he will have to decide what to do with the explanatory note at the beginning of the book. The three translations compared in this paper exemplify several different ways of tackling this problem.
The 1949 Spanish translation, published in Buenos Aires, translates neither the note nor the varieties. The translator just forgot about it and used the same Spanish variety throughout the book. However, they translate "you" as "usted" when Jim addresses Huck, as we can see in :
"Hello, Jim, have I been asleep ? Why didn't you stir me up ?
Goodness gracious, is dat you, Huck ? en you ain' dead - you ain' drownded - you's back agin ? It's too good for true, honey, it's too good for true. Lemme look at you, lemme feel o' you [...]. " (Twain, 1996:108)
" Por qué no me despertabas ? - le pregunté.
  Dios del cielo ! ¿ Ha vuelto usted, amo Huck ? Es mucha felicidad para ser cierto. Yo lo creía perdido y ahogado. " (Twain, 1949:84)
This translation does not give any value to varieties, it simply gets rid of them. Further, it contains strong idelogical expressions like "usted", which indicates Jim's subordination with respect to Huck. The translator made his own reading of the text. He made significant reductions and many other changes. The translation of "you" as "usted" may be due to the fact that Jim sometimes calls Huck "boss", which the translator understood as "amo" and not as "jefe", the more colloquial and friendly equivalent for "boss". However, this requires further research.
Another Spanish translation, published in 1981 in Madrid translates the note but doesn't translate the varieties. This translation is quite different from the previous one, as we can see in the translation of the above passage.
" Hola, Jim. ¿Me he dormido? ¿Por qué no me has despertado?
 ¡Dios mío! ¿Eres tú, Huck  Y no estás muerto ..., no estás ahogado ... has vuelto? ¿Cómo puede ser, guapito, cómo puede ser verdad? Déjame mirarte, criatura, déjame tocarte [...]. (Rolfe, 1981:100)
The Catalan translation, by Fontcuberta, goes  beyond the previous translations of Huckleberry Finn. There is an attempt to tackle the problem of the translation of varieties. This is made explicit in the footnote that follows the translation of the "explanatory" note:
"En aquest llibre es fan servir un cert nombre de dialectes [...] Els matissos no s'han escollit per atzar o a base d'inventar, sinó després de moltes penes i treballs, i sota el guiatge garantit i l'ajuda de la coneixença d'aquestes formes de parlar.
Faig aquest aclariment perquè, sense ell, molts lectors podrien suposar que tots aquests personatges provaven de parlar d'una manera normal i no ho aconseguien*
* A l'hora de traduir  aquestes formes dialectals s'ha tingut en compte especialment la dels negres i hem intentat "donar la impressió" del parlar dels negres, però per raons òbvies de comprensió no hem reproduït el dialecte. (N. De T.)" (Fontcuberta, 1981:6)
This excerpt implies that:
1) Varieties are not normal ways of speaking. Fontcuberta translates "alike" by "normal", and this does not look like a mistake, but like an intentional change.
2) The translator will focus his attention on the variety spoken by black people, not so much on the other varieties.
3) The translator does not attempt to find an equivalent Catalan variety for the Missouri Negro Dialect, but to use some salient features of a variety to characterize a variety as abnormal.
This third assumption proves to be true in the translation of the passage that we have used to compare the two previous translations. Fontcuberta translates this passage as follows:
"- Hola, Jim, que m'he adormit ? Per què no em despertaves ?
 - Vàlga'm Déu! Ets tu, Huck? I no t'has mo't, no t'has ofegat, has to'nat? És massa bonic per ser ce't, minyó, massa bonic. Deixa'm mirar-te, xicot, deixa'm tocar-te. No, no e'tàs mo't! Has to'nat, sa i estalvi. É' el meu amic Huck, el mateix, g'àcies a Déu! (Fontcuberta, 1981:104)
It is clear that each translator tackled the problem of the translation of varieties in a different way. Although none of these translations is satisfactory enough as far as the translation of varieties is concerned, Fontcuberta's is the translation that is closest to the "ideal translation" (in spite of its being rather distant from this goal). In the following section I will compare the use of the Missouri Negro Dialect in Twain's text with the variety which Fontcuberta uses to portray Jim's way of speaking.
 3.-Jim's Variety Compared to Black English.
I will compare Jim's language to Black English, since it would be rather difficult to find information about the features of the Missouri Negro Dialect. I will try to see if Jim's language  contains the following features of Black English:
1) Double negatives.
2) Omitted "to be".
3) Absence of  tense in verbs.
4) Repetition of the subject for emphasis.
5) Questions without the dummy operator "do".
6) Lack of plural form for nouns.
7) Absence of third-person marker in the present tense.
8) Pronunciation of -th as /f/.
9) Omission of final /t/ in words like "just"and "test".
It is evident that Jim omits the verb "to be", although not always. In chapter two he says,"Who dah ?" (Twain, 1996:8) and then, "Say- who is you ? Whar is you ? Dog my cats ef I didn' hear sumf'n. Well, I knows what I's gwyne to do. I's gwyne to set down here and listen tell I hears it agin." (Twain, 1996:9) In the second excerpt there are some features of Black English, like the irregular use of full verbs and of "to be" on the syntactic level, and also some other features, like the substitution of /f/ for /?/ on the phonological level. The spelling also shows numerous mispronunciations. However, some features of Black English are not present here, like the lack of plural form for nouns ("cats").
More features of Black English can be found in another excerpt :
"Doan' hurt me - don't ! I hain't ever done no harm to a ghos'. I awluz liked dead people, en done all I could for 'em. You go en git in de river agin, whah you b'longs, en doan' do nuffin to Ole Jim, 'at 'uz awluz yo' fren'." (Twain 1996:54)
In this passage there are two double negatives: "I hain't done no harm to a ghos'" and "doan' do nuffin to Ole Jim". Also, the final /t/ in "ghos'" is not pronounced and in "nuffin" ("nothing"), the /?/ is replaced by /f/.
Another feature of Black English, the repetition of the subject for emphasis, is also present in Jim's speech, as we see in " [] Ole Missus - dat's Miss Watson- she pecks on me all de time []" (Twain 1996:55)  and  in "Now de duke, he's a tolerble likely man, in some ways." (Twain, 1996:206)
Finally, Jim omits the operator in questions:" [] What you want to know when good luck's a-comin' for ?" (Twain 1996:57) However, on other occasions he uses the operator in questions, as in "How much do a king git ?" (Twain, 1996:99)
It is clear that Jim's variety is quite close to Black English. Many features of this variety can be found in Jim's interventions. Apart from the features above mentioned, other features, especially phonological ones, are also portrayed. However, if we read the book carefully, we realize that many of the above mentioned features are not specific to Jim's way of speaking. Further, some expressions and syntactic patterns belong to Jim's ideolect rather than to the Missouri Negro Dialect and are used for characterization. Proving this, however, is not our purpose. People who have studied the varieties in Huckleberry Finn and Twain's style say that "Although Twain had a very good ear, he uses dialect variations principally for characterization and only secondarily for linguistic authenticity"(Holmgren 1986:72) In spite of this, Twain used the varieties in Huckleberry Finn quite carefully and portrayed most of their features, as the excerpts have shown.
 4.-Fontcuberta's Translation
Julià says that it would be a good idea to translate the Missouri Negro Dialect into "catanyol" (a variety which is officially called "xava"). He argues that this variety would be an adequate equivalent because "darrerament s'ha considerat que l'anglès negre americà no era tan anglès com això, sinó força crioll" (1997:201). López del Castillo, when talking about the "xava" and the "xarnego" varieties of Catalan says, "Es tracta de modalitats criolles de llenguatge" (1984:55). So, if we assume that Black American English is a kind of creole, the "xava" variety seems quite valid for a Catalan translation.
Fontcuberta does not specify the variety that he uses in order to portray Jim's way of speaking, but we assume that he is using the "xava" variety. As López del Castillo (1984:55-56) says, the "xava" variety is characterized, among other things, by:
 *Neutralization of /? /  and /i/ into /i/, in all positions.
 *Shift from /?/ to a /?/ which is as open as the Spanish /?/ or even more..
 *Neutralisation of /?/ and /?/ and /o/ and /?/ into /?/ and /?/
 *Absence of vocalic ellisions within a phrase.
 *Tendency to pronounce [Ø] or even an aspiration when there is an [s] in final position (in a syllable).
 *Use of many Spanish words.
 *Deviant use of pronouns
These features will be used to assess the linguistic authenticity of  Fontcuberta's translation of Jim's way of speaking. Fontcuberta translates the excerpts that we have selected to analyse Jim's way of speaking in the following way:
 

1) "Qui hi ha ?" (Fontcuberta 1981:11)
 2) "Ep ... Qui sou ? Què feu ? Iams i t'ons i calama'sa si no hai senti't una cosa. Ja sé què fa'è. Me queda'é aquí assegut i e'co'tant fins que ho to'ni a sentir." (Fontcuberta 1981:11)
3) "No em facis mal ... no ! Mai no he fet mal a un fanta'ma. Semp'e m'han aga'dat els mo'ts i semp'e he fet el que he pogut pa' eis. To'na't'en al riu, d'on has vingut, i no li facis res al veí Jim, que semp'e ha e'tat el seu amic. (Fontcuberta 1981:56).
4) La veia conca, vui dir la senyoreta Watson, tot el dia me bu'xa i em t'acta força malament (Fontcuberta 1981:58)
5) Pe' què vols saber quan t'arribarà la bona so't ? (Fontcuberta1981:60)
6) Quant guanya un rei ? (Fontcuberta 1981:95)
7) Mi'a el duc, é' un home supo'tab'e en ce'ta manera.(Fontcuberta 1981:118)
Jim's speech in the Catalan translation is a standard Catalan with some deviations from the norm. These deviations are:
* Palatalization of /ll/  in words like "iams" (llamps), "veia" (vella), "eis" (ells).
*  Use of the full form of some object pronouns like "me quedaré", "me bu'xa." But this is not at all systematic. There are cases where he uses the standard form, as in "no em facis mal or tot el dia me bu'xa i em t'acta força malament." Also, he  uses "el" when he should use "lo", as in "he fet el que he pogut per eis".
*  Ellision. This affects mainly /r/ and /l/, but also /s/ to a certain extent.
* Use of non-standard verb forms, although on very few occasions, as in "no hai sentit una cosa"
*  Mispronunciations or common monosyllabic words, like "pa'" (per). This, again, is not regular.
Although Fontcuberta does not specify on which variety he will base his translation of Jim's words, we can see that all these features can be attributed to the Catalan variety called "xava" . However, only some of the features of "xava" are present in the Catalan version of Huckleberry Finn. Besides, the pronunciation of the vowels o and e that is characteristic of "xava" is not reflected in the text. Transfers from Spanish or Spanish words are also infrequent.
What Fontcuberta has done is to characterize a way of speaking as deviant. To do so, he has used some noticeable features which are identified with a specific variety of Catalan. It seems that whereas Twain used varieties primarily for characterization, Fontcuberta uses them only for characterization, without aiming at linguistic authenticity.

 5.- Some Thoughts on the Problem of the Translation of Varieties
So far, no translation that reflects all the varieties in the original text has been published. The translation of varieties seems problematic for several reasons. First, it is difficult to find equivalent varieties in the target culture. Second, readers of the translated text tend to associate a variety with a place or with a social group or context which is not that in which the action of the novel takes place.
The "explanatory" note would also be a problem if the varieties were translated. Would the translator leave the names of the American varieties or would he substitute the names of the target-language varieties for them ?
There are few proposals for a translation of all the varieties in Huckleberry Finn. The most comprehensive is Julia's (1997). His goal seems to be characterization and not linguistic authenticity, because he says:
"La crítica està unànimement d'acord a atribuir a tots els dialectes una funció caracteritzadora cabdal.[...] Per això pretenem restituir en una futura versió del text al català tota la seva complexitat." (Julià 1997:200)
The problem of the translation of varieties seems very difficult to solve, at least in the case of Huckleberry Finn. Apart from the difficulty of finding the same number of varieties in the target culture, there are other issues that must be taken into consideration, like the social status of the speakers of each variety, the connotations of the varieties and several other problems which have to do with the social connotations of the varieties. In other words, translating varieties is not a totally linguistic activity, but also a cultural one. We must not forget that we are talking about a book, which is a cultural product.

6.- Bibliography
*Fontcuberta, Joan.1981. Les aventures d'en Huckleberry Finn.Barcelona:La Magrana.
*Julià, J. 1997. "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn i les traduccions impossibles". In Soledad González and Francisco *Lafarga (eds.) Traducció i literatura. Homenatge a Àngel Crespo, Vic:Eumo. 195-202.
*Holmgren, J. 1986. "An Art so High".  In L.J. Budd (ed.),  New Essays on Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Cambridge:C.U.P, 61-81.
*López del Castillo, L. 1984. Llengua standard i nivells de llenguatge. Barcelona:Laia.
*Rolfe, D. 1981. Las aventuras de Huckleberry Finn. Madrid:Anaya
*Twain, Mark. 1996. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York:Random House.
*Twain, Mark.1949. Aventuras de Huck. Buenos Aires:Acme Agency

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