Shehe! Don't go there!: AC Jordan's Ingqumbo Yeminyanya: (The Wrath of the Ancestors) in English

Abstract

As the title suggests, this article highlights some of the translation strategies used by Archibald Campbell Jordan to transfer ideas and aspects of culture from isiXhosa into English in Ingqumbo Yeminyanya. Ingqumbo Yeminyanya is a classic novel in isiXhosa which was published in 1940 by Lovedale Press. It was translated into English by the author with the help of his wife, Priscilla Phyllis Jordan, and was published as The Wrath of the Ancestors in 1980 by the same publisher. The article begins by giving a brief outline of the story and the author's biographical sketch. Thereafter it looks at the question of translation norms, as the norms dictate strategies the translator employs in the translation process. Some of the translation strategies which are analysed in the article are: transference/foreignisation, using a cultural equivalent, using a pure loan word plus explanation, and translation by descriptive phrase. In discussing the translation strategies, the authors provide explanations of the cultural concepts transferred from isiXhosa into English and also give meanings of idiomatic and proverbial expressions which are translated literally in the target text. Examples cited from the source text [ST] are taken from the 1974 edition of Ingqumbo Yeminyanya.

Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 2008, 26(1): 69–85