Problematics of translating culture: A study in translated version of Rimal's Masan

Abstract

The research entitled "Problemitics of Translating Culture: A Study in Translated Version of Rimal's Masan" deals with the problems in cultural terms due to the gap between source culture and target culture while translating a text. Though Rayamajhi, the translator of Masan and Rimal, the writer of the text are from the same Nepali source culture, the former's attempt of translating latter's Masan in English results into the cultural manipulation. In the translated English version of Rimal's Masan, Rayamajhi has tried her best to maintain the cultural equivalence but she fails to do so properly because though the language can be translated, the culture can't be with the equal cultural spirit of the original text due to the lack of cultural equivalent words between the source culture and the target culture. The Nepali typical material, ecological, social cultural words like 'dhyangro', 'bhote-talchha', 'pathi-chultho', 'dulahi' etc. are mistranslated in 'drum', big-lock', 'bride' and sometimes deleted too. Thus, the translation of a text from one language to other never equivalent because of the cultural loss of the source text to the target text.