Váňová’s Translation of Youth in Revolt (Mládí v hajzlu)
Petra Zapletalová, 2001

Roger Bell’s definition of the translating process sounds rather straightforward: “The translation is the replacement of a representation of a text in one language by a representation of an equivalent in a second language” (Bell, 6). It is certainly true; however, it takes enormous effort to fulfill it entirely. In my seminar work, I would like to analyze Tamara Váňová‘s translation of C.D. Payne’s Youth in Revolt and examine what means she used to accomplish an authentic translation of the original work.
First of all, I would like to give some specific information on the book itself. It is a trilogy depicting the troublesome adolescence of an American teenager, Nick Twisp. As opposed to the Unites States, where all three parts were published in one book, in the Czech Republic, each volume is available separately, and so it functions as three novels. Part 1, subtitled Youth in Revolt (Mladík v odboji), portrays Nick’s life with his divorced mother and her policeman lover in Oakland, in Part 2, called Youth in Bondage (Mladík v okovech), he stays with his father and his beautiful girlfriend in Ukiah, and in Part 3: Youth in Exile (Mladík v exilu), he is forced by the outside circumstances to escape to India (or at least to pretend it). Throughout the course of few months, Nick gets into unbelievable trouble, he is charged with arson, theft and even attempted murder, and that all in the name of love (and sex, too). According to L.A. Reader, “while Nick searches for sex, he finds a great deal more a general joie de vivre…” In order to gain the heart of the girl of his dreams, Sheeni, a beautiful intellectual, Nick entangles himself in his own intrigues and becomes his own victim. After the novel had been published, newspaper reviews overflowed with praise; they emphasized its continuity with other famous “coming-of-age” novels, as Confederacy of Dunces, Catcher in the Rye, Secret Diary of Adrian Mole or Portnoy’s Complaint. 
When trying to retain the author’s original style, it is important to get acquainted with it thoroughly. This is especially true about Youth in Revolt, whose style is quite distinctive. It is actually a diary, and so it is clear that the author tried to sound as authentic as possible. Thus, he writes in “ich-form” and mentions the exact dates that a particular event took place on. Nick, whose ambition is to become a writer himself, speaks in the Salinger-like mixture of high words and slang. His language is highly informal but still, there appear many terms from various intellectual spheres of human activities, which he learnt mainly from reading fiction. Frequently, he even invents words of his own, meaning of which must be guessed from the context. Payne himself gives reason for that; he says that Nick “is an inexperienced writer who tries to show off all the big words that he knows.”  In addition to high style words, Nick also uses loan words from foreign languages, mainly of French origin, particularly when he allows to speak his alter ego, Francois.
The most significant device the author employs is perhaps irony. Nick makes sarcastic comments on everything that surrounds him; i.e. his parents and other adults, school and the whole American society as such. On surface, he does not seem to sentimentally suffer from his parents’ divorce, as it is common in novels about teenagers. For instance, he likes to tease his mother by details from his father’s love life, with ostensible naivety: “I said I didn’t know if it was serious but they spent a lot of time in the bedroom taking naps.”(Payne, 16) – “Řek sem, že nevím, nakolik je to vážný, ale že si často choděj zdřímnout do ložnice“.  Translating humor and irony may be rather troublesome, as it can be understood only by readers with similar cultural and educational backgrounds. This is perhaps why the book was not successful in all the languages it was translated into. In an on-line interview, Payne himself states that it has done well in Germany and Croatia, as opposed to the Spaniards, who thought the book was too American. About the Czech version, he says: “It’s a best-seller in the Czech Republic; pretty much every teenager who can read has probably read it.” Without any doubt, the Czech translation contributed much to the success, as it not only preserved Payne’s specific style, but in my opinion,  it even exceeded it. Furthermore, Tamara Váňová seems to have emphasize the odd contrast of high style and low style, as she exaggerates the abyss between both of them.
I would like to give an example of the style in a short abstract and its translation.

My loathsome father, under whose despotic rule I have come to live while hiding out from the arson investigators, has not stated explicitly that I am grounded. Of course, I dare not ask him. As a test, after lunch I announced I was taking Albert for a walk into town. Dad did not object. He did not comment at all, but continued to gaze fixedly at the sheerly draped bosom of his alluring 19-year-old-live-in bimbette  (Payne, 163).

…můj vodpornej otec, pod jehož despotickou nadvládu jsem byl přinucenej se stáhnout, abych unikl vyšetřovatelům již zmíněnýho žhářství, zatím explicitně neřekl, že bych měl mít domácí vězení. Jasnačka, že sem se neptal. Na zkoušku sem po vobědě prohlásil, že du vyvenčit svýho psa Alberta (to méno mu dala Sheeni Saundersová, má intelektuální láska, na počest existencionalistickýho nebožtíka Alberta Camuse). Tata nic nenamítal. Vlastně vůbec nijak slovně nezareagoval, nýbrž upřeně zíral na skrovně oděný poprsí svý skvostný devatenáctiletý štětule, se kterou teď žije.

At first sight, it is obvious that the original  is written in a much more formal language, while the translation is highly colloquial. Váňová has decided to add to her translation dialect, which is spoken in the region of Moravian center, Brno. However, it is not a purely geographic dialect, the so-called “hantec”, which would be really hard to understand, but it is more likely a parallel to standard Czech (obecná čeština). There is a frequent appearance of morphological deviations: in declination and conjugation (as in svýho, přinucenej) as well as phonological deviations: words starting with vo instead of  o (vodpornej, voběd) or deletion of particular sounds (řek, du). As far as lexicology is concerned, she translates Dad as tata, or of course as jasnačka.  As one can see from the last two examples,  Váňová often  translates originally neutral words into stylistically marked dialect. A typical illustration of this fact is the title of the book itself; the emotional load of revolt does not fully correspond with the much stronger v hajzlu. She is at her best, when she is forced to look for solutions of Nick’s frequent neologisms: bimbette – štětule.  Or to give an example from another passage: Nick is wearing a T-shirt with I’M SINGLE, LET’S MINGLE, which is translated as SEM SÁM, RÁD DÁM. She also translates into Czech the nicknames of Nick’s friends: Lefty is Levák and Fuzzy is Hároš. According to Levý, the most important thing in translating a dialect is to find a consistent approach: he criticizes translators whose style jumps from one dialect to another. This is certainly not Váňová’s problem, her style is natural and constant and her choice of words inexhaustibly imaginative. 
When comparing the original and translation, I was surprised by the fact that while it is usual that the translator might omit incomprehensible passages, it is vice versa in the case of  Youth in Revolt. As it can be observed in the extract quoted above, Váňová, as opposed to Payne, gives explanation of why the dog’s name is Albert. A probable clarification for that might be the fact that the translator found important to revise  some information from Part 1 at the beginning of Part 2, as both books are sold individually. 
This leads to an almost “philosophical” question; how far is a translator allowed to go, as far as the translation's independence on the original is concerned? In the case of Youth in Revolt, I think that the book only gained with its Czech translation. One of the basic translation principles is to achieve naturalness, so that the reader has the same experience and pleasure while reading the book as the reader of the original. By adapting it to Czech setting, i.e. via the resourceful language and distinctive style, it might have become even better than the original.

Literature Used:
Bell, Roger T. Translation and Translating. New York: Longmann Inc., 1991.
Levý, Jiří. Umění překladu. Praha: Československý spisovatel, 1963.
Payne, C.D. Youth in Revolt.  New York: Doubleday, 1993.
Payne, C.D. Mládí v hazlu. Transl. Tamara Váňová. Brno: Jota, 1995.
www.nicktwisp.com
http://www2.localaccess.com/adamc/twisp.htm