Riku Haapaniemi

Matter, form, and meaning: Reproduction of a source text’s material form and content in the translation of song lyrics

In my study, I deconstruct the translation process and re-evaluate the relationship between the source and target text by utilising the concept of materiality. As Karin Littau has stated, traditional conceptions of translation are permeated with the view that “form” and “meaning” are diametrically opposed concepts. The material view refutes this dichotomy by proposing that a text is predominantly a material entity, and its formal and material structures both contribute to its overall meaning.

These basic principles of the materiality of texts can be contrasted with Anthony Pym’s concept of material distribution. Building on this, “source text” is redefined as the cultural, material and textual input of the translation process, whereas “target text” is seen as linguistic content produced into a new material and cultural context. Since the output of the translation process is purely linguistic content, this output must be produced to be part of a material text. All translation is therefore intersemiotic translation: transformation of cultural and material meanings into language, which must then conform to certain material and cultural demands.

My study tests these assumptions in practice by comparing two song texts, an English-language original and its Finnish version. The formal constraints imposed on the song text by the demands of music and singability are equated with the material framework surrounding the purely linguistic translation output. The adaptation of cultural content is likewise analysed in terms of demands and restrictions imposed on the target text by its new cultural context.

Overall, these approaches coalesce well and support the basic tenets of materiality. Analysing texts as material entities and conceptualising the translation process as material distribution calls many of translation theory’s prevalent dichotomies into question. Building on the materiality of texts can therefore lead translation studies to a multitude of new theoretical approaches and practical research methods.