COVERStory THEORY
Translators’ authorship
IN PERSPECTIVE
Is the translator equal or subordinate to the author of a text? This simple question points to the complex issue that has been subject to debate among scholars concerning translator authorship.
________________ By NCHANJI Melvin Student Translator
M
inds on either side of this isle have raised several points in defence of their respective views. Upon closer analysis, it seems that nobody is wrong or right when the issue is looked at from the position of the translator and the author in the source and target culture. To consolidate the view that translators are not authors, Pym (2010) re-echoes the position which denies translators complete source-text authorship since “Translators, when translating, are not authors because their pronominal position is not established by the words said”. Simply put, translators cannot lay claim to authorship because the discourse they manipulate isn’t theirs. If the author of a source text wrote “I”, the translator in translating will translate “I” without meaning him/her the translator. The bottom line is translators
aren’t original. But here comes copyright to extend protection to translation, which is a derivative work – not original- although copyright is traditionally aimed at protecting original works. The appearance of the word originality in the entire debate prompts one question: who between the translator and the source text author is most original? This question is a microcosmic manifestation of a bigger issue: the definition of an author?
Sub-author, partial author or shadow author? Defining the status of the translator in relation to the texts s/he works on has been a complex task for scholars.
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l ASA’s Voice NO.2 January2O13
Basalamah (2000) succinctly captures this issue when he says: “What is the definition of an author? Does the author still possess, in the literary or philosophical thought of the twentieth century, the same status? Is it time to rethink and redefine the grounds for authorship with respect to copyright laws? The image is based on the assumption that an author is not a creator, e.g. an absolute being maker ex- nihilo, who possesses the absolute privilege to exploit his rights. The image is perhaps based on the theory that the bulk of the author’s contributions to the patrimony of the humanity are nothing more than a reformulated heritage.” If we concur with Basalamah that