Translating linguistic diversity and cultural context in Mia Couto’s Sleepwalking Land: translation strategies and paratexts in the Chinese version

Abstract

The linguistic diversity in Mia Couto's Sleepwalking Land, resulting from the insertion of indigenous words in the text, plays a fundamental role in constructing the African cultural context and seeking Mozambican national identity. To translate this linguistic diversity and reproduce the African context of the original, the Chinese translator, Min Xuefei, adopted a hybrid approach to deal with indigenous words. On one hand, some indigenous words are transliterated to disconnect Chinese readers from their own context, allowing them to immerse themselves in the African context of the work. On the other hand, when faced with indigenous words that constitute culturally recognizable symbols for Chinese readers, the translator directly translates their semantic meaning to preserve the stability of these symbols. Instead of solely relying on foreignization as the only way to highlight linguistic diversity in the work, this article explores the possibility of combining foreignization and domestication to create an accessible translation that does not obscure cultural nuances, through an analysis of Min's Chinese translation. Furthermore, as the linguistic tension present in the original is challenging to convey directly in translation, the research examines and values the paratextual elements in the Chinese version, where the translator unveils the author's perspectives on language diversity, especially in a post-colonial context.