A study on translator's approach in translating comedy-dramas; with special reference to the dramatic text of the comedy-drama "The Bear" by Anton Chekhov and its Sinhalese translation " වලසා” by Ariyarathna Vithana

Abstract

Drama is a form of literature which was created and produced to be read and staged. The textual form of a drama is known as the dramatic text or the script. Delivering a dramatic text from one language to another is known as the dramatic translation or theatrical translation, and it is considered as a more complex genre among the other literary translation genres due to its distinctive characteristics such as speakability and performability. A drama that ultimately makes the audience laugh or cheerful is considered as a comedy-drama. This research intends to explore the manner that the comic element is conveyed when translating dramatic texts of comedy-dramas, and the stratergies used to overcome the challenges faced by the translator during the process. The data of this research were analyzed with a qualitative approach using comparative methodology. The dramatic text of the comedy-drama “The Bear” by Anton Chekhov and its Sinhalese translation “වලසා” by Ariyarathna Vithana are used as the primary sources and data were collected by comparing the two texts. As per the findings, the translator deals with two major aspects in dramatic translation; text and spoken message. The main challenge in translating comedy-dramas is conveying the actual sense and the comic element of the drama to the target audience while being faithful to the source author. Comedy-dramas mainly uses pun on words, verbal satire and sarcasm in the dialogues to evoke the comic element. Therefore, the usage of Sinhalese terms that render the similar pragmatic effect of the terms in the source text and the usage of translation theories; omission, addition and adaptation are the key techniques used by Comedy-drama translator. The translator must be aware of both the culture and the structure of the languages used in the dramatic texts to reach the audience with a successful comedy-drama.