(1) The translator should not 'plod on', word by word or sentence by sentence, but should 'always "block out" his work'. By
'block out', Belloc means that the translator should consider the work as an integral unit and translate in sections, asking himself 'before each what the whole sense is he has to render'.
(2) The translator should render idiom by idiom 'and idioms of their nature demand translation into another form from that of the original. Belloc cites the case of the Greek exclamation 'By the Dog!', which, if rendered literally, becomes merely comic in English, and suggests that the phrase 'By God!' is a much closer translation. Likewise, he points out that the French historic present must be translated into the English narrative tense, which is past, and the French system of defining a proposition by putting it into the form of a rhetorical question cannot be transposed into English where the same system does not apply.
(3) The translator must render 'intention by intention', bearing in mind that 'the intention of a phrase in one language may be less emphatic than the form of the phrase, or it may be more emphatic'. By 'intention', Belloc seems to be talking about the weight a given expression may have in a particular context in the SL that would be disproportionate if translated literally into the TL. He quotes several examples where the weighting of the phrase in the SL is clearly much stronger or much weaker than the literal TL translation, and points out that in the translation of 'intention', it is often necessary to add words not in the original 'to conform to the idiom of one's own tongue'.
(4) Belloc warns against les faux amis, those words or structures that may appear to correspond in both SL and TL but actually do not, e.g. demander—to ask translated wrongly as to demand.
(5) The translator is advised to 'transmute boldly' and Belloc suggests that the essence of translating is 'the resurrection of an alien thing in a native body'.
(6) The translator should never embellish.
Belloc's six rules cover both points of technique and points of principle. His order of priorities is a little curious, but nevertheless he does stress the need for the translator to consider the prose text as a structured whole whilst bearing in mind the stylistic and syntactical exigencies of the TL. He accepts that there is a moral responsibility to the original, but feels that the translator has the right to significantly alter the text in the translation process in order to provide the TL reader with a text that conforms to TL stylistic and idiomatic norms.
Belloc's first point, in which he discusses the need for the translator to 'block out' his work, raises what is perhaps the central problem for the prose translator: the difficulty of determining translation units. It must be clear at the outset that the text, understood to be in a dialectical relationship with other texts (see intertextuality p. 82) and located within a specific historical context, is the prime unit. But whereas the poet translator can more easily break the prime text down into translatable units, e.g. lines, verses, stanzas, the prose translator has a more complex task. Certainly, many novels are broken down into chapters or sections, but as Barthes has shown with his methodology of five reading codes (see S/Z, discussed by T.Hawkes, Structuralism and Semiotics, London, 1977) the structuring of a prose text is by no means as linear as the chapter divisions might indicate. Yet if the translator takes each sentence or paragraph as a minimum unit and translates it without relating it to the overall work, he runs the risk of ending up with a TL text like those quoted above, where the paraphrasable content of the passages has been translated at the cost of everything else.
The way round this dilemma must once again be sought through considering the function both of the text and of the devices within the text itself. If the translators of Silone had considered the function of the tone they would have understood why the careful rhetorical patterning of the opening paragraph needed closer examination. Likewise, if the translator of Mann had considered the function of the description of both the young man and the journey, she would
have understood the reasons for Mann’s choice of language. Every prime text is made up of a series of interlocking systems, each of which has a determinable function in relation to the whole, and it is the task of the translator to apprehend these functions.
Let us consider as an example the problem of translating proper names in Russian prose texts, a problem that has bedevilled generations of translators. Cathy Porter's translation of Alexandra Kollontai's Love of Worker Bees contains the following note:
Russians have a first ('Christian') name, a patronymic and a surname. The customary mode of address is first name plus patronymic, thus, Vasilisa Dementevna, Maria Semenovna. There are more intimate abbreviations of first names which have subtly affectionate, patronizing or friendly overtones. So for instance Vasilisa becomes Vasya, Vasyuk, and Vladimir becomes Volodya, Volodka, Volodechka, Volya.
So the translator explains, quite properly, the Russian naming system, but this note is of little help during the actual reading process, for Cathy Porter retains the variations of name in the TL version and the English reader is at times confronted with the bewildering profusion of names on a single page all referring to the same character. In short, the SL system has been transported into the TL system, where it can only cause confusion and obstruct the process of reading.
Moreover, as Boris Uspensky has shown in his valuable book A Poetics of Composition, the use of names in Russian can denote shifts in point of view. So in discussing The Brothers Karamazov Uspensky shows how the naming system can indicate multiple points of view, as a character is perceived both by other characters in the novel and from within the narrative. In the translation process, therefore, it is essential for the translator to consider the function of the naming system, rather than the system itself. It is of little use for the English reader to be given multiple variants of a name if he is
not made aware of the function of those variants, and since the English naming system is completely different the translator must take this into account and follow Belloc's dictum to render 'idiom by idiom'.
The case of Russian proper names is only one example of the problem of trying to render a SL system into a TL that does not have a comparable system. Other examples might be found in the use by an author of dialect forms, or of regional linguistic devices particular to a specific region or class in the SL. As Robert Adams puts it, rather flippantly:
Paris cannot be London or New York, it must be Paris; our hero must be Pierre, not Peter; he must drink an aperitif, not a cocktail; smoke Gauloises, not Kents; and walk down the rue du Bac, not Back Street. On the other hand, when he is introduced to a lady, he'll sound silly if he says, 'I am enchanted, Madame'.
In the discussion of equivalence it was shown that any notion of sameness between SL and TL must be discounted. What the translator must do, therefore, is to first determine the function of the SL system and then to find a TL system that will adequately render that function. Levy posed the central questions that face the translator of literary prose texts when he asked:
What degree of utility is ascribed to various stylistic devices and to their preservation in different types of literature…?
What is the relative importance of linguistic standards and of style in different types of literature…? What must have been the assumed quantitative composition of the audiences to whom translators of different times and of different types of texts addressed their translations?
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