Literary and Untranslational Complications in the Translation of the Government Inspector From English to Kiswahili

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to examine the literary and untranslational complications in the translation of the Government Inspector from English to Kiswahili. The study was guided by the following research objectives: to examine how language and culture affect the translation of the Government Inspector from English to Kiswahili; to establish how terminology development affects its translation; to find out how the target audience affects the translation; to examine how untranslatability affects the translation from English to Kiswahili. The study also suggests the strategies that can be used to reduce untranslational complications in the translation of the Government Inspector from English to Kiswahili. The study employed a qualitative research approach. Document anal~sis was used in this study to collect data from the English and Kiswahili texts of the Government Inspector and Mkaguzi Mkuu wa Serikali which were used as the main documents. The collected data was analysed using qualitative approach of data analysis. From the analysis the following conclusions were made: While the translator endeavored to translate the Government Inspector, there were language and cultural elements that could not be adequately captured. The translation to some extent tries to reach the target audience mainly African governments regimes but as it is rooted in the culture and context in which they arise, literal translation cannot transfer the exact meaning of the intention of the ST, hence it did not result in a similar response from the TL audience. The various untranslatable elements in the Government Inspector bearing in mind that its setting is based on Russian context, fails to adequately address the issue of untranslatables.