I will attempt to present a critical analysis of Nil Alt's translation of Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, published in 2017 by Alfa Publishing HouseSay no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay First of all, I would like to mention the book. As the name suggests, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a guide to how to hitchhike around the galaxy. The book was actually a radio show in 1978, and after the appreciation the show received, Adams wrote a book about it in 1979. It is actually a "five-volume trilogy", as Adams says (but I will only analyze the first five chapters of the first book). The book, or radio series, has also become a play, a television series, a video game and a film. Additionally, in Turkey the book has been published several times, including Saluki Budak's translation for Edesos Publishing in 1991, Serhat Dalkır's translation for Sarmal Publishing in 1996 – which was translated as Her Otostopçunun Galaksi Rehberi – and the translation by Nil Alt for Kabalcı Publishing in 2003 – which was republished in 2017 by Alfa Publishing. The book's protagonist is Arthur Dent, a "typical" Englishman who is not a hero, but actually a boring person. The story begins on a typical Thursday lunchtime, with many city officials coming to Arthur's house to tell him that his house would be demolished because a new road was to pass through it. However, what actually matters is that the Vogons, an alien race, are coming to demolish Earth for the exact same reason, because an intergalactic bypass needs to be built. So the Earth is destroyed, and luckily Arthur's friend turns out to be an alien. They hitch a ride together to a spaceship, and then Arthur becomes the last living Earthling. The rest is just crazy adventures. When it came out, the book was a huge success, a lot of people read it, and it touched a lot of things. For example, Altavista's first translation service was called Babel Fish because in the book there is a real fish that you can put in your ear so that it translates all known languages. The band Radiohead named one of their songs after Marvin, a depressed robot in the book, as Paranoid Android. Additionally, an asteroid is named after Arthur Dent. Finally, according to Google, the answer to life, the universe and everything is 42, as it is in the book. Before beginning my analysis, I would like to say a few words about the author Douglas Adams and the translator Nile Alt. . Actually, there are a lot of things to say about Douglas Adams, but let's just say briefly that he is basically a genius who died at a very young age. He was a writer and editor of the Doctor Who series. He has a very specific writing style and sense of humor, and what he manages to do is he can combine things you would never imagine together in a very natural way and fun. He is also the author of Dirk Gently's The Holistic Detective Agency. On the other hand, translator Nil Alt graduated from Robert College and then Istanbul University. She did her master's degree at Bogazici University, in translation and interpreting studies. She has translated numerous novels, essays and children's books. In my analysis, I will try to follow the path suggested by Van der Broeck - even if, by mistake, I read the translated version first. I will therefore begin by analyzing the stylistic characteristics of the source text, then carry out a comparative analysis to understand why the translator made certain choices. Douglas Adams is an author who uses repetition a lot,sometimes he changes a sentence a little and then he rephrases it or repeats it. Onomatopoeia also plays a large part in the book. Additionally, the book contains a lot of satire, particularly on human nature; the book's satire is sometimes too obvious, and sometimes not. Adams also combines informal language with scientific language, and he's really good at constructing simple, monotonous sentences, but he adds an element of surprise with shocking twists. In addition, it creates successful dialogues between the characters. Finally, the book also includes Vogon poetry, which, according to The Guide, is the third terrible thing in the entire galaxy. Having identified the stylistic features of the text, we can now proceed to the comparative analysis. First, I will look at how the translator dealt with repetitions in the text: ST: “There was a terrible silence. TT: “Koruna bir sessizlik oldu. There was a terrible, terrible noise. Now it's time to go old. There was a terrible, terrible silence. Now it's time to get old. »In this part, Adams repeats almost the same phrase three times. Nil Alt does not make many changes to the translation and also uses the same repetition. However, I don't think "gürültü olmak" sounds natural in Turkish. ST: “…a terribly stupid disaster happened and the idea was lost forever. » TT: “…aptal bir felaket meydana geldi ve fikir sonsuza dek yitip gitti. » ST: “But this is the story of this terrible stupid catastrophe…” TT: “Ama o korkunç, aptal felaketin…” ST: “…and until the terrible catastrophe occurs…” TT: “… ve o korkunç felaket meydana gelene dek …ST: “But the story of this terrible and stupid Thursday…” TT: “Ama o korkunç, aptal perşembenin…” In these sentences, Nil Alt once again chooses to protect the affect of repetition; however, it does so in an inconsistent manner. For “terrible stupid disaster”, she uses “aptal”, “korkunç” and “korkunç, aptal”. Perhaps it would be better if she translated everyone in the same way.ST: “…and was also deaf and mute. » TT: “…üstelik sağır ve dilsiz birini seçmiştim. » ST: “…which also turned out to be deaf and stupid. »TT: “…ama o da sağır ve dilsiz çıkınca…”ST: “…the third man I spoke to turned out to be deaf and mute and also blind…”TT: “…üçüncü adam da sağır ve dilsiz , üstelik de kör çıkınca…” In this example, Nil Alt again conveys the effect of repetition, but she somehow euphemizes the sentences. This may be because if someone calls a deaf person “mute,” they may experience a serious reaction. I think that's why, instead of saying "sağır ve aptal", she preferred to say "sağır ve dilsiz". I will now focus on how the translator conveyed the general style of the original text and why she made certain word choices.ST: “He was simply wrong about the dominant form of life. » TT: “Ama üzerinde araştırma yaptığı egemen canlı türünün seçimi hakkında hata yapmıştı. » Although the translation contains an erroneous interpretation, I do not want to chase away the errors. Here I would like to draw attention to the fact that the translator chose to explain the sentence instead of leaving it briefly as the original, and she added a part "üzerinde araştırma yaptığı", even though it was clear that the text speaks of a “research” in the previous sentence. ST: “Ships hung in the sky like bricks. » TT: “Gemiler, tuğlaların asla duramayacağı gibi gökyüzünde asılı duruyorlardı. » I particularly wanted to add this sentence. in my article because I think this is one of the sentences that clearly shows the style of Douglas Adams and how unpredictable he is. Even if this sentence seems impossible totranslate – or it's impossible to create the same effect, let's say – I think Nil Alt succeeded in translating it well. The phrase has actually lost slightly of its effect, but I can say that it is a successful translation which transfers the correct meaning and most of the effect.ST: "'Six pints of bitter,' said the prefect of Ford…” TT “'Altı tane serves Arjantin bira,' dedi Ford Prefect…” In this sentence, Nil Alt chose to domesticate the beer part because it is only in Turkey that we call a beer glass of 70 cl “Arjantin”. Now I will examine the translation of “people” by “halk”. ST: “…most of the people who participated were unhappy most of the time. » TT: “Most people were unhappy most of the time. » ST: “…many people were mean and most were miserable, even those with digital watches. » TT: “…most people were poor and most of them were miserable, digital, even those who wore a wristwatch. on… »Nil Alt chose to translate “people” by “public”. However, when I checked TDK's definition of "public", all definitions included a common word: country – country. Thus, we can say that being a “people” is somehow linked to living in the same country or belonging to a nation. However, in the source text, the intended meaning includes all people living on Earth, namely humans. Although and (2) seems nice and natural, it seems somewhat unnatural. Instead of saying "people", "those who live on" or "living creatures" might be a better option. I will now proceed to analyze the translation of the invented names. Celestial Home Care Omnibus – Fifty More Things to Do in Zero Gravity – Fifty-three More Things to Do in Weightlessness Where did God go wrong? – Where did God go wrong? Some More of God's Biggest Mistakes – Who Is This Godly Person Anyway? – Who is this God?Encyclopedia Galactica – Main Galactica EncyclopediaPan galactic gargle blaster – Pan galactic gargle bombThe President of the Council of Nobility of Mid-Galactic Arts – President of the Honorary Council of Mid-Galactic ArtsFrom these examples, we see that Nil Alt preferred to domesticate most of the time. For example, she translates “Encyclopedia Galactica” – a reference to the Encyclopedia Britannica – as “Ana Galactica Encyclopedia”, since the popular version of the real encyclopedia in Turkey was Ana Britannica . On the other hand, the original text itself has something of a "foreign" effect since the elements mentioned are already foreign to all inhabitants of Earth. Nil Alt successfully manages to convey this “foreign” effect in Turkey while preserving alliteration, assonance and puns – as in the example of “Pan galactic gargle blaster – Pan galactic gargle bomb”. Finally, I'll take a look. when translating Vogon poetry in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. In the book, Vogon poetry creates a humorous effect. It has its own grammar, we can identify verbs and nouns; however, the words are mostly made up and the "real" words used are usually words we are not used to seeing used together. “Oh, worried grunt… Your urination is to me like chattering about a lurgid bee. » are for me... O spotted grunt bug, like many chatter spots on a sick bee. , luminous sefarts. Otherwise, I will tear you to pieces with my crackling that makes you sick. Let's see if I give up. " In the source text, the humorous effect is created by the use of unfamiliar, or rather not. real words. In both examples, Adams consistently uses these strange words to create humor..