TRANSLATING SEXUAL TERMINOLOGY FROM ENGLISH INTO SINHALESE: WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO E.L. JAMES’ ‘FIFTY SHADES OF GREY’ AND ITS SINHALESE TRANSLATION

Abstract

Translating sexual language is an exceptional skill a literary translator has to master since the translator acts as a mediator between the cultural ethics of the source language and the target language while producing a final output incorporating linguistic elements adhering to translation theories. Notably, in Sinhalese-translated literature, there is a significant lack of translated erotica due to cultural and linguistic barriers. In a background as such, a controversial attempt has been made by translator Ranjith Kuruppu to translate E.L. James’ erotic trilogy ‘Fifty Shades Grey’ into Sinhalese, captivating a huge fanbase. Therefore, the present study, which followed a mixed research design, sought to investigate the translation techniques employed by the translator in translating the sexual terminology from English into Sinhalese included in the source text and to assess the quality of the translated sexual terminology in terms of accuracy, acceptability, and readability. Accordingly, the first part of the trilogy, ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ and its Sinhalese translation ‘ප්‍රේම සැඳෑවෝ’ were selected as primary sources. A diverse array of secondary sources related to research on translating sexual language and translation theories were referred to. The framework of translation techniques introduced by Molina and Albir (2002) and the Translation Quality Assessment Model introduced by Nababn et al. (2012) were employed as the research instruments in analysing the translation techniques and assessing the quality of the translated sexual terminology respectively. The findings revealed that the translator had favoured the technique Established Equivalent (40.42%) predominantly followed by other techniques, Amplification (26.59%), Substitution (11.7%), Description (5.32%), Literal Translation (4.26%), Adaptation (4.26%), Reduction (3.19%), Particularization (3.19%), and Borrowing (1.06%). The overall quality of the translated sexual terminology was moderate (less accurate, acceptable, and readable). It could be assumed that the challenge the translator has encountered in distinguishing between the types of euphemistic and orthophemistic sexual terminology, applying appropriate translation techniques for such terms, preserving uniformity, naturalness in translation, and the challenge of using readable Sinhalese equivalents had been instrumental in deeming the quality of the translation as moderate. The findings of this research are expected to enrich the translators interested in the erotic genre to understand the culture-specific nuanced nature of sexual language and how the application of translation techniques affects the quality of translation