Jaroslav Kořán and his translation of Roald Dahl´s

In this essay I will deal with the translation by Jaroslav Kořán of Roald Dahl´s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”. I will divide the essay into two parts. In the first part I will briefly mention something about Roald Dahl and his work and I will characterize the story “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”. Then I will give basic information about Jaroslav Kořán and his work and I will add a list of some of his translations from English (Note: I know the list will not be complete as there is no publication giving a thorough list of translations by various translators.). In the second part I will analyze the translation of Chapter 27 in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, supporting my analysis with some other examples from the rest of the book. I will try to find both positives and negatives of this translation.

The book was translated to Czech in 1991 by Jarolav Kořán (proze) and Pavel Šrut (verse) under the title “Karlík a továrna na čokoládu”. The translation was published at Winston Smith in Prague, 1992 (Note: In this essay I will focus my attention on the translation by Jaroslav Kořán only.).

JAROSLAV KOŘÁN (born 1940)

Jaroslav Kořán was born on the 17 of January 1940 in Prague. He is a playwright, script-writer, publicist and translator. In 1957 he became a tool-maker. In 1963 he started his studies at the Film Faculty of AMU (Filmová fakulta AMU), the subject of script – writing. In the years of 1970 – 1973 he worked as a script-writer at the “Barrandov Film Studio” (Filmová Studia Barrandov). In 1973 he was arrested and up to 1974 held in prison for “defaming the nation” (“hanobení národa”). In the years of 1974 – 1975 he worked as a mechanic of the Prague drainage (Pražské kanalizace). In 1967 he visited the United Kingdom, as a part of an award in the literary competition of BBC. In 1968 he visited Sweden (he was awarded a scholarship by the Swedish Writer´s Organisation). The years of 1968 – 1969 he spent again in the United Kingdom where he started to prepare an anthology of Czech poetry. Since 1960 he has been publishing in magazines and newspapers, e.g. Mladý svět, Repertoár malé scény, Mladá Fronta, Knižní kultura, Sešity, Světová literatura, magazines for children. He is an author of radio plays “Škola – základ života”, “Taková ptákovina” (1968) (“Taková ptákovina”was brought out in Sweden and Norway) and also plays which have never been brought out (“Ženy byly krásné, noc horká, opojná”, “Slova aneb Lekce z rétoriky”, “Viděl jsem UFO”). He is an author of TV programmes “Zvědavá kamera” (1966 – 1967), screenplays of films about visual art (together with J. Lehovec and Josef Kořán), an author of the screenplay of a film “Smrt si vybírá” (1971) and a TV play on a motif of a story by C. Kornbluth “Gomez”. He is an author of a book “Living Theatre: Divadlo života: 1951 – 1980. Since 1975 he has given over to a translation. He translates from English and German (e.g. Henry Miller, Roald Dahl, Kurt Vonnegut, Ken Kesey…). In 1969 he was prosecuted for a presumed pornography because of his translation of Henry Miller´s “Quiet Days at Clichy” (Tiché dny v Clichy) in the Sešity Magazine. Now he has been working on a dictionary of Czech argot, town jargon and slang (Slovník zakázaných autorů, pg. 233 – 234).

4/ Dahl, Roald: Milostné rošády (together with Jana Koblížková)

5/ Dítě na skleníku. Výbor ze současné americké poezie. Ed. Josef Jařab. Praha, Odeon 1989, Ammons, A.R. , s. 27 – 55, Ashbery John, s. 56 – 85, Berryman John, s. 86 – 101, Harper Michael, s. 155 – 175, Koch Kenneth, s. 177 – 193, O´Hara Frank, s. 248 – 277, Rich Adrianne, s. 278 – 303, Roethke Theodore, s. 304 – 331, Snyder Gary, s. 332 – 335, Wright James, s. 356 – 375.

10/ Saroyan, William: Léto na krásném bílém koni. Přel Josef Schwarz, Jaroslav Kořán a /Zdeněk Urbánek/. Praha, Práce 1981.

13/ Toole, John Kennedy: Spolčení hlupců (A Confederacy of Dunces). Praha, Argo 1995.

15/ Vonnegut, Kurt: Jatka č. 5 (Slaughterhouse – Five). Praha, MF 1973. Praha, Volvox Globator 1994.

19/ Vonnegut, Kurt: Snídaně šampiónů aneb Sbohem, modré pondělí! (Breakfast of Champions). Praha, Odeon 1981.

21/ “Wright James – básník hlubokých a čirých slov”. Světová literatura 28, 1983, č.6 – “Nekonečná černá píseň” (Long Black Song), s. 60 – 74, “Velkej černej dobrák” (Big Black Good Man), s. 74 – 81.

In the second part of my essay I will analyze the translation of Chapter 27 “Mike Teavee is Sent by Television”, translated as “Zteleviznění Mikyho Telekuka” (see the enclosed copies). I will use this chapter as a sample to demonstrate the negatives and the positives of the translation, as I feel them. Though some negatives can be found, still positives prevail and I would generally consider the translation to be a very good one. I think that Jaroslav Kořán has enriched the book in many ways. I will start with the negatives of his translation, as I think it is better to end up with the positives.

In this case I would suggest rather plural form “továrna na zubní pasty” or “továrna na výrobu zubních past”, as in Czech we do not have “továrna na pneumatiku, továrna na jogurt…”

Here, instead of the expression “umělý tuk” I would rather use “margarín”, as “margarín” is now more commonly used among people.

Here, I would rather suggest “Je nejvyšší čas, abys utíkal do školy…”

Here, I would rather use “Zdálo se, že je zhotoven…”

In the Czech translation I would omit the tag question, though here the unusual construction “není-liž pravda” might have been translated on purpose to illustrate the peculiarity of the language of Mr Wonka.

Here, I would rather suggest a construction “po pokoji”.

2/ The translation contains quite a lot of transgressive forms, which I would rather substitute with subordinate clauses. Transgressive forms, according to PMČ, are bookish and archaic and they do not sound very common.

I would substitute this akward and complicated construction with a simple sentence, e.g. “Po něm bude mít prsty na nohou přesně tak dlouhé jako prsty na rukou.”

The sentence sounds akward according to two embedded sentences, which cut it into too many segments. It sounds like the town was in the newspaper. So, I would suggest a different order, e.g. “V novinách stálo, že město, kde August bydlel, šílelo…”

This sounds akward thanks to the omitting of the verb in the second sentence. I would suggest “a byla stále řidší” instead.

4/ The translation also contains several grammatical mistakes and mistakes in punctuation. Though, these do not have to be mistakes of the translator, but of the proofreaders.

Here, the embedded sentence should be separated with commas, so the correct form is ”Všechno, co vytáhnete, se ztenčí.”

According to SSČ, the only possible form of the adverb is “přitom”, meaning “zároveň, současně”.

SSČ gives two possible forms: vodnatý/ mající mnoho vody, nenáležitě mnoho and vodový/přen. řídký, bez chuti, vodová polévka. As for me, I would prefer the form “vodový”, as “vodnatý” connotates for me immediatelly with “hlava, koleno”. This is just a subjective feeling.

SSČ gives two forms: nebezpečenství/ bookish and nebezpečí. I would rather use the second one.

Čokoláda je ještě dobřejší než kakaové boby…(59)

1/ I think, that the domain of Jaroslav Kořán´s translations is the translation of the dialogues. There he uses language of all stylistic levels. He uses natural Czech used in real life, colloquial, slang, non-standard Czech. He has a strong tendency to use marked expressions even when they are unmarked in the original. Also, he has a strong tendency towards expresivity, in some cases using slightly stronger expressions than they are in the original. There is no doubt that he has a very rich vocabulary. Concerning the dialogues in the translation, I think, that he has enriched them in many ways. Let us see, for example, the translation of the dialogues of the old people and compare them with the dialogues in the original. Kořán made use of the vocabulary of the old Czech, using archaic, old-fashioned, bookish and not commonly used expressions, which I would call the typical “grandma and grandpa´s expressions”.

2/ I also liked the translation of the speech of Grandma Josephine in the last chapter. The situation is that she dropped her false teeth and so she started to lisp. In the original her speech is unmarked, without any sign of lisping. Kořán made it marked which, I think, enriched the speech again.

3/ What I also like about the translation of the dialogues by Kořán is that he is able to characterize people through their speech. To characterize them he uses marked expressions, unlike the author of the original does. Let us see two examples: the speech of Violet Beauregarde and Mr Wonka. Through the translation of the speech of Violet we get the feeling that she is an ill-mannered, spoilt child and that Mr Wonka is a very courteous man.

4/ In the analyzed chapter we can clearly see the tendency of Jaroslav Kořán to transfer some facts to the Czech context, to something closer to a Czech reader.

5/ What I mainly appreciate on Jaroslav Kořán´s translation is his play with language and words, his creativity. I think that he is very careful in finding the right expressions and creating neologisms.

6/ Jaroslav Kořán has a strong tendency towards expressivity and intensification. This tendency is most conspicuous in his translation of opening expressions, phraseologisms and interjections.

Czech: škemrat, ječet, pištět, zděsit se, povykovat, skučet, hořekovat, vzdychat, volat, vybuchnout, strachovat se, štkát, kňourat, jásat, namítat, kvílet, skřehotat, zahřmět, vřískat, bědovat, lkát…and all possible prefixes and suffixes.

Concerning the phraseologisms, Kořán very often employes them even they are not phraseologisms in the original.

7/ And finally, I will give a few examples of expressive, slang and colloquial expressions Kořán uses. This is to exemplify that his translation is far more marked than the original is. I have no objection to his usage of such expressions, on the contrary I think that these make the book more attractive.

1/ Brabec, Jiří a kol. Slovník zakázaných autorů. Praha: SPN, 1991.

2/ Bradbury, Malcolm and Ruland, Richard. Od puritanismu k postmodernismu. Dějiny americké literatury. Praha: MF, 1997.

4/ Dahl, Roald. Karlík a továrna na čokoládu. Přel. Jaroslav Kořán a Pavel Šrut. Praha: Winston Smith, 1992.

5/ Filipec, J. a kol. Slovník spisovné češtiny pro školu a veřejnost. /SSČ/ Praha: Academia, 1994.

6/ Hais, Karel a Hodek, Břetislav. Velký anglicko – český slovník. Praha: Academia, 1993.

7/ Kol. autorů Ústavu ČJ FF MU. Příruční mluvnice češtiny. Praha: Nakl. LN, 1996.