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40. The Translation of Stylistic Devices In Rene Philombe’s Short Stories
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541 40 The Translation of Stylistic Devices In Rene Philombe’s Short Stories by Joseph Che Suh Advanced School of Translation and Interpretation (ASTl) University of Buea Abstract Cameroon is a bi-cultural and bilingual country whose official languages are English and French. Translation of literary works of French expression into English and vice versa could contribute a great deal not only in exposing the country’s bicultural and bilingual population to each other’s literary traditions but also in integrating the works into their respective literary traditions. Unfortunately translations of Cameroonian literary works from French into English and vice-versa have remained very insignificant. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the translation of Cameroonian literary works of French expression into English by suggesting ways of handling some of the stylistic devices in Rene Philombe’s short stories entitled Histoire Queue-de-chat. These suggestions could equally be applied to short stories by other French speaking authors with a style similar to that of Philombe. Cameroon is a bi-cultural and bilingual country whose official languages are English and French and today the country can be said to possess a rich written literary heritage in both languages as evidenced by the impressive number of writers. most of them prolific (I) Translation of literary works of French expression into English and vice-versa could contribute a great deal not only in exposing the country’s bi-cultural and bilingual population to each other’s literary traditions but also in integrating the works into their respective literary traditions. Works on the early Cameroonian writers of French expression such as Mongo Beti (cf... Mission Terminee (1957) and Le 542 roi miracule (1958) and Ferdinand D’Oyono (d. Une vie de boy (1956) and Le vieux negre et La medaille (1967” were translated into English and subsequently became integrated into the literary tradition of the English-speaking part of the country. (2) They were included in the list of literary works of English expression prescribed in the syllabuses of Anglophone Schools. Unfortunately, translations of Cameroonian works from French into English and vice-versa have remained very insignificant. This may be attributed to the fact that translating a literary work is a very demanding task. In literary translation there is always interaction between literary criticism and translation. The literary translator must possess the ability to carry out literary appreciation or criticism. In addition to having a good knowledge of the setting of the work he must be sensitive to figures of speech such as imagery, metaphors and similes. He must be sensitive to the use of other various stylistic devices and possess the ability to analyse connotation. The purpose of this paper therefore is to contribute to the translation of Cameroonian literary works of French expression into English by suggesting ways of handling some of the stylistic devices in Rene Philombe’s short stories entitled Histoire queue-de-chat. (1971). Apart from the problem of conveying Philombe’s message the translator is also faced with the difficulty of rendering the sty le used by the author to convey his message. Since most of the stylistic devices used by Philombe are typically African, it is important to place the literary conventions used in the stories in their literary context - that of oral African literature. By literary conventions I mean mainly such devices as expressiveness of tone, gesture, facial expression, various uses of pause, parenthesis, repetitions, ideophones, rhetorical questions and the kinds of introductions and conclusions that is satisfying or attractive to the culture in which the stories are set. In short, the art of story-telling in Cameroon in general, and the Beti tribe, in which Philombe’s stories are set in particular. Stories are often “acted out” in the sense that to a greater or lesser degree, the speech patterns and gestures of the story’s characters are brought alive by the narrator and the action is largely presented through dialogue between various characters portrayed vividly by the story-teller. This may be illustrated by the following passage: [3.12.41.106] Project MUSE (2024-04-17 20:02 GMT) 543 Son visage s’anime de tics de grimaces et de rides indignes d’un homme illustre. Ses lèvres, tantôt s’allongent, tantôt se retrecissent hideusement comme celles d’un gorille bavant de terreur. _ Qu’y a-t-il, qu’y a-t-il donc Monsieur le Commandant? _ Il y a que tu dois mieux nous raconter...