Susan Gillman
LIT102
16 February 2012
Notice: Persons Attempting to Translate Twain Will Be Shot
If I were a translator-editor working on a “multilingual” version of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn for a multicultural age, I would leave the text as it is, especially if the stated goal of the publisher was to step squarely into the debates over the history of censorship of the novel. Alas, if I were a translator-editor, I would have to produce some sort of work, for otherwise, I would not receive my income. So, for the sake of providing for myself, I would render this “translation.” It is adapted into “standard English” that would be acceptable for public high school students in the United States to read and process.
I told Jim about Louis XVI, a French king that was beheaded in France a long time ago; about his little boy, the dolphin, which would have been king if those who opposed his father hadn't taken him and shut him up in jail. Some say he died there.
"Poor little kid."
"Some say he escaped, and then came to America."
"That's good! But he'll be pretty lonesome-- there aren't any kings here, right Huck?"
"No."
"Then he can't get involved in anything. What is he going to do?"
"I don't know. Some people join the police, and some teach others to speak French."
"Why do they do that, Huck, don't French people speak the same way we do?"
"No, Jim; you couldn't understand a word they said -- not a single word."
"Well I'll be a monkey's uncle! Why couldn't I?"
"I don't know, but that's how it is. I read some French in a book. Suppose a man came up to you and said parlez-vous français-- what would you think?
"I wouldn't think anything. I'd just take him and beat him over the head-- that is, if he wasn't white. I wouldn't allow someone of a lower social status to say that."
"Aw, he wouldn't be insulting you. He's just be saying, 'Do you know how to speak French?'"
"Well, then, why couldn't he just say that?"
"He is saying that. It's just a Frenchman's way of saying it."
"Well, it's a ridiculous way, and I don't want to hear anymore about it."
"Look, Jim; does a cat speak like we do?"
"No, a cat doesn't."
"Does a cow?"
"No, a cow doesn't, either."
"Does a cat speak like a cow, or a cow speak like a cat?"
"No, they don't."
"It's natural and right for them to speak differently, isn't it?"
"Of course."
"Isn't it natural and right for a cat and a cow to speak differently from us?"
"Why, it most surely is."
"Well then, why wouldn't it be natural and right for a Frenchman to speak differently from us? Answer me that."
"Is a cat a man, Huck?"
"No."
"Well, then, there isn't any reason why a cat should speak like a man. Is a cow a man? -- er is a cow a cat?"
"No, a cow isn't either of them."
"Well, then, a cow has no place to speak like either of them. Is a Frenchman a man?"
"Yes."
"Well, then, gosh darn it, why doesn't he speak like a man? Answer me that!"
I then realized that I was wasting my breath -- one cannot teach a person of lesser intelligence to argue. So I quit.
It is impartial to define what exactly, “standard English” is, because I am translating to this standard. I wrote for a specific audience, so I wrote to their idea of “standard English.” Before I define “standard English” as seen by a public high school of the United States, it is also impartial to address why I translated for them. The education system in the United States, specifically, is one that every citizen must take part in (at least on paper). Thus, the curriculum taught there must be correct and acceptable, because every child born in the United States must get an education through this system. The question, then, becomes, “what is standard curriculum?” I cannot speak for any high school save my own; I do not have the adequate knowledge to speak for others – so for the sake of simplicity – I use “public high school of the United States” as a synonym for my conception of a public high school, based roughly on Cordova High School, in Rancho Cordova, CA. My specific school may not follow the same standards as all others, but it is, indeed, a public high school in the United States, and thus relevant to this discussion. A public high school of the United States would not want to use Mark Twain’s original text because a public high school in the US would define “standard English” by much more restricting criteria. “Standard English” would need to be grammatically correct, convey semantic meaning, and be inoffensive to each student who reads it. Furthermore, in the history of the United States education system, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been a highly controversial novel, for in the eyes of at least one individual, it contains “racist” language and “coarse” ungrammaticalness, and those elements of the novel do not comply with ideas of correctness and what is acceptable in school.
Having said that, I deem that my translation is unacceptable and incorrect, because of Mark Twain's preface to his novel:
Notice
PERSONS attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.
BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR, Per G.G., Chief of Ordnance.
Explanatory
IN this book a number of dialects are used, to wit: the Missouri negro dialect; the extremest form of the backwoods Southwestern dialect; the ordinary “Pike County” dialect; and four modified varieties of this last. The shadings have not been done in a haphazard fashion, or by guesswork; but painstakingly, and with the trustworthy guidance and support of personal familiarity with these several forms of speech.
I make this explanation for the reason that without it many readers would suppose that all these characters were trying to talk alike and not succeeding.
THE AUTHOR.
Huckleberry Finn
Scene: The Mississippi Valley Time: Forty to fifty years ago
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is not a novel that is up for interpretation. It is not to be translated. It is not to be changed in any shape or form. Out of respect for Mr. Mark Twain, it is to be taken by the reader for what it is, and nothing more.
I would like to take a minute to examine a change I made in my translation to “standard English,” as it would be defined by those who oppose the use of “nigger” in the novel due to the offensive nature of the term. The word “nigger” appears in the original selection twice. I have translated this word in two different ways, which are bolded in the translation: “someone of lower social status” and “person of lesser intelligence.” The word “nigger” is a term that has evolved through time and space. The Oxford English dictionary defines a “nigger” in the sense of referring to people in seven different ways and uses sub-definitions to further define some entries. This word connotes much more than just simply a person of lower social status or a person of lower intelligence. The word “nigger” evokes the entire history of the United States, because it is intertwined with it. It evokes people believing that they are less than another person because of their skin color. It evokes horrible scars, and unnecessary violence. In another context, it evokes thoughts and feelings of kinship. My translation does not use this word, and suffers no loss of logical meaning because of it. It instead loses the history and evocations of the word, “nigger.”
In my translation, I have changed Jim’s “dem”s and “dey”s into “them”s and “they”s. Jim’s use of “dem” and “dey” in Mark Twain’s original text is considered ungrammatical by my audience’s working definition of standard English because “dem” and “dey” do not follow any logical grammatical construct. My “them”s and “they”s convey correct grammatical meaning, but by changing Jim’s “dem”s and “dey”s I have taken his voice away from him – and he is not the same Jim that Mark Twain originally penned. He is a bastardized Jim, for Jim’s language creates Jim, and I should be shot. Furthermore, in my translation, Jim speaks in the same language as Huck does, so the differences between their dialects of English disappear. Dialects are evidence of different cultures, because a language is a part of what creates a culture. Therefore, by taking Jim’s voice away, I have taken away his language and culture.
“Nigger” is generally seen as an offensive term, and “Dem” and “dey” are generally seen as ungrammatical terms, but in the context of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, I would consider both to be words of Twain’s personification of his characters’ natural English, and therefore, see no issue with having the “incorrect and unacceptable” by “standard English” words reprinted. I would not dare touch a single word of Mark Twain’s work. His use of language points directly to multicultural and multilingual differences, because his language does not try to hide the fact that people and languages are different. The word “nigger” alone evokes the censorship debates concerning it because it is perceived as so offensive. “Nigger” will not appeal to every person who reads Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; nor will “dem” and “dey.” They will not be of their tastes, for whatever reason, but that does not make them incorrect or unacceptable. It only makes them unacceptable and incorrect in a society that defines “standard English” as the way my audience does, because that audience has a specific taste that must be satisfied by my work.
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