1. Introduction

Although the study of annotated translation has been neglected in Iran and in English-Persian language pair, many articles and theses have examined the translators’ problems and solutions adopted by them in other language pairs. For example, in English-Indonesian pair, Wibowo (2019) conducted a research study on the novel ‘Any Minute’ penned by Joyce Meyer, and Koskinen (2010) presented his thesis on the annotated translation of the Seventh Templar by Juha-Pekka Koskinen in Finish-English Pair. Scholars have used different models for annotation, but the purpose remains the same. In this paper, the researcher wants to see how and by which techniques the translators solve the problems based on the strategy they have in mind.

A 4840-word document was chosen for translation and annotation from English to Persian. Topics like the author of the text, rationale for translating this text, language role, register, and text type, will be discussed in the following sections. Then, depending on the readership and translation goal (Skopos), the relevant arguments for adopting translation methodologies are provided. Finally, techniques or procedures that have been used during the translation process, namely the annotations section, will be reviewed.

This story has been chosen from a collection of stories that have been published in the book entitled "Cuentos Reunidos" in 2009. The story is originally written in Spanish and then translated into English by Audrey Harris and Matthew Gleeson and published in the book entitled "The Houseguest and Other Stories" in 2018. Dávila takes the psychology of unrequited love and loneliness to its most excruciating extreme in ‘Tina Reyes’, possibly the greatest story in the book. Tina feels envious of one of her friends' apparently excellent status. Unlike her friend, who is happily married and her husband has an outstanding career, Tina does a job she despises, lives in a lousy neighborhood, and is lonely - so lonely that she believes it is her "destiny to be alone in the world”. While she is on her way to see her friend, a stranger approaches her and attempts to converse with her. He starts off a little rough, but he does not do anything physically harmful. Tina is concerned by the man's presence, so she picks up her speed, almost running, till she reaches her friend's house safely. She meets the man again when she gets home, and he pursues her again, wanting only to chat, introduce himself more wisely, beg for a bit of her time, and get to know her better. Tina becomes increasingly paranoid, believing that the man is planning to rape or murder her, and also that he definitely has a partner waiting in a nearby cab to take them both away. Dávila uses the presence of an ineffective guy to turn the screws on Tina over half of the whole narrative. He, too, is despondent and bereft. He starts to come across as a kind man. Tina's imagination, on the other hand, runs wild, trapping her in a world of danger.

As part of the Annotated Translation course, we were required to translate a text. Initially, I translated a legal text, but due to the difficulty in applying translation procedures like modulation, transposition, and others, and the need for greater accuracy, I switched to a literary text. From all the literary writings, I chose this one. I was deeply affected by the language of this story. It reminded me of the situation in Iran. Many Iranian ladies and mostly young girls are constantly confronted with these challenges. Because of the shattered trust between Iranian girls and boys, which is caused solely by the wrecked structures, I translated this text. The author translated this text to influence the readers and change their point of view about this anomaly. May all boys and girls be able to coexist peacefully in all societies.

2. Review of Literature

2.1. Language Role and Register

The field of discourse is "the total event, in which the text is functioning, together with the purposive activity of the speaker or writer; it thus includes the subject-matter as one element in it." Based on the classifications provided for discourse, the translated text falls into the realm of narrative. In general, it should be said that in this text, the tenor was quite formal. Even in conversations between the protagonist and his friend, we do not see very informal words. “The tenor refers to the type of role interaction, the set of relevant social relations, permanent and temporary, among the participants involved” (Halliday, 1994, p. 22). The following lexical items and sentences can be mentioned:

Lexical items: threshold, intertwine, frantic, sordid, whirlwind, enormous, spliced, thronged, vertiginously, unwound, collapse, voracious, devoured, harassing, confrontations, unleashed, boarded, crouched, engulfed, mercy, invading, company, sinister, accomplice, deceiving, plunging, void, remarked, etc.

As an example of a relative complex structure, one can mention the following segment:

The confrontations, the two of them face-to-face and full of hate, she the target of everyone’s gaze, the photographers harassing her, the medical examination, lying completely naked on a cold table, fastened by the wrists and ankles, and all of them above her like vultures, hands, eyes, on her, inside her, everywhere, and her naked in front of a hundred eyes that devoured her — never, never, she’d rather suffer whatever happened alone, in silence, without anyone else knowing.

2.2. Reiss's classification of texts

First, according to Katharina, we look at the type of the text. Reiss (1977, p. 108–109) proposes the key characteristics of each text type (genre) as follows:

1. Informative: information, knowledge, and views are examples of ‘plain communication of facts’. The linguistic dimension utilized to transfer the information is logical or referential, and the content or 'topic' is the communication's primary focus.
2. Expressive: 'creative composition' refers to the author's use of aesthetic components of language. The author, or 'sender,' is highlighted, as is the message's format.
3. Operative: 'inducing behavioural responses': the operative function's goal is to convince or appeal to the text's reader or 'receiver' to do something, such as buying a product (if an advertisement) or agreeing to an argument (if a political speech or a barrister's final remark). The language is dialogic, and the emphasis is on appellatives.
4. Audio-medial: they are texts, such as films and visual and spoken ads that add visual imagery, music, and other elements to the other three functions.

According to Reiss's classification, at first glance, we may place the text in the second type, expressive function, because of its literary vocabulary and relatively complex sentences, but there is also a critical view and encouragement of women and society to move. Criticizing the society can be clearly seen in many sentences. A few examples can be mentioned here:

Ex. 1: "How terrible the police stations must be, the police themselves, the endless and degrading questions — what would he say?"

In this part, we can see the author's criticism of the way police officers treat victims of rape and violence, which has been expressed quite openly.

Ex. 2: "What would they think of her? Maybe that she’d been asking for it, they’d probably think she was “one of those girls,” and they would treat her like one . . ."

The pronoun "they", in this part of the text, refers to the general public, which refers to the kind of negative view of the victims of this social anomaly. Based on what has been discussed, the type of text cannot be classified as just "expressive," as we have seen criticizing and encouraging words in the text that aim to influence people's minds. The type of text we are discussing here is "hybrid," which has both an expressive and an operative role. This story is not presented with any visual content, so the fourth function — Audio-medial — is removed.

2.3. Readership

Unlike many scholars who have a prescriptive approach and consider good translation to be somewhat ST-oriented, in this translation, influencing the Persian-speaking reader was very important from the translator's point of view. Therefore, based on Skopos theory proposed by Reiss and Vermeer (1984/2013), the translation strategy was tried to be TT-oriented to impress the readers more.

At the beginning of the translation, it was decided to localize even the names of the characters, but this decision was abandoned due to the fact that some parts were not suitable for an Iranian context. Thus, if localization was done, the translator would have to cut those parts. Even an Iranian rape story could inspire the name chosen for the protagonist.

2.4. Translation Strategies and Procedures

At the beginning of the translation work, each translator decides with his or her own approach and mental "ideology" what "strategy" is appropriate for translating the text. Of course, there is also the fact that sometimes the translator translates only for profit, and according to the commissioner, he has to translate the text in a determined manner. But since in this case choosing the translation strategy was at the discretion of the translator, we examine the translation strategy and procedures according to Vinay and Darbelnet's classification (1995, 2004, p. 128–137).

In translating and annotating this text, the techniques presented by Vinay and Darbelnet have been used. They propose two types of strategies for translating texts namely, direct and oblique translation and each type has its own sub-types or procedures.

2.4.1. Direct translation

they consider this type as a literal translation. The authors prescribe literal translation for good translation: 'literalness should only be sacrificed because of structural and metalinguistic requirements and only after checking that the meaning is fully preserved' (Vinay & Darbelnet, 1995, p. 288). However, according to them, the translator may deem literal translation "unacceptable" for grammatical, syntactic, or pragmatic reasons. When a literal translation is not possible, they recommend using the oblique translation. However, after presenting their classification, the translator's justification for not following their prescription will be presented. Vinay & Darbelnet (1995) introduced and exemplified the following translational procedures in their seminal work when they originally compared English-French translations (in both directions) stylistically.

1. Borrowing: In pairs of languages where the letters of the alphabet are fundamentally different, such as Persian and English, this technique is accompanied by transliteration.
2. Calque: In this procedure, an SL term or structure is literally translated. The Persian calque ماه عسل is for the English honeymoon, for example.
3. Literal Translation: This is basically ‘word-for-word’

2.4.2. Oblique Translation

According to Vinay and Darbelnet, the translator may deem literal translation "unacceptable" for grammatical, syntactic, or pragmatic reasons. When a literal translation is not possible, they recommend using the oblique translation.

4. Transposition: This is when one part of speech is replaced with another.
5. Modulation: This procedure alters the SL semantics and point of view.
6. Equivalence or Idiomatic Translation: This phrase is proposed by Vinay and Darbelnet (1995, pp. 38–39; 2004, p. 134) to characterize situations in which languages utilize diverse stylistic or structural techniques to depict the same issue. When translating idioms and proverbs, equivalence comes in handy.
7. Adaptation: When a condition in the source culture does not exist in the target culture, this procedure involves modifying the cultural reference.

In addition to the above procedures, they introduce some other complementary techniques that are used in this translation, as follows:

1. Amplification: Sometimes because of syntactic expansion, the TL utilizes more words, e.g.: translating her position to جایگاه شغلی‌اش.
2. Economy: It is the opposite of amplification.
3. Explicitation: Implicit information in the ST is rendered explicit in the TT.
4. Generalization: The use of a more general word in the TT. For example: translating whispered to گفت.

Many scholars, including Vinay and Darbelnet, whose division was presented, have spoken about the strategy of translating. According to Skopos theory proposed by Reiss and Vermeer (1984, 2013), a translator can translate the text according to the purposes of translation. Although many scholars, such as Newmark, Vinay and Darbelnet have suggested source text-oriented translation for ease of work and speeding up the translation process, based on the Skopos theory, oblique translation or "communicative approach" as Newmark proposed (1981, p. 39) is adopted to have a greater impact on Persian readers. Since the translator's ideology and aim for translating this story was to transfer the author's complaints to the setting of Iran and to bring out comparable anomalies as much as possible.

2.5. Ideology

Ideology is an indispensable part of any literary text as the writers’ or translators' initial impetus for writing or translating that text arouses from the ideology they have in their minds. Ideology causes conscious manipulation in the text that besides the writers or translators' own ideology, it may be originated from the commissioner, editor, or institutional/governmental circles (Munday, 2016). In this work, as the translator's ideology was influencing the target readers and bolding the issue of rape in the target context, maximum domestication and minimum censorship were applied.

3. Method

Initially, the full text of the story was read once to determine its structure and content. Based on Skopos theory, the purpose of translation was determined. In the previous section, we discussed the purpose of the translation. As a result, the translator attempted to simplify the grammar and vocabulary as much as possible during the translation process. Contrary to Newmark's view (1981, p. 69) that the text should not be simplified too much and all the material "should not be placed on a plate and be handed to the reader", the translator did his best to ensure that the Persian-speaking reader could use the material from the "plate" with the least effort. Take his eyes like a spoon and eat them with his mind.

For translation, the translator tried to use the usual CAT tools, but since these tools, such as MemoQ and SDL Trados have errors and bugs in commenting in Persian, after several trials and errors, the translator finally decided to use Memsource which is a web-based CAT tool. Of course, this tool also has some problems with the Persian language, but it has a better performance compared to other ones.

The text of the story, like other stories and literary texts, especially some sentences and paragraphs, had its own difficulties. These were the specific parts in which the author deliberately wrote the text in a more complex way, which naturally made the translation process more difficult.

The main problem was more in the field of Persian language, how the translator could reduce the effort of the Persian-speaking reader by distancing himself from the literal translation. In fact, it was somewhat difficult to follow the principle of equal impact that Nida (1964, p. 159) states.

The problems that the translator encountered in the translation process were commented on in the translation process. Of course, the problems that may have been somehow related to the translator's deficiencies, not knowing some words meaning and connotations, were invoiced from the commenting process.

A few days after the translation process was completed, the translator reread the entire text to correct and polish the translation and apply the necessary corrections. Then, by selecting the Vinay and Darbelnet 's categories that we discussed in the previous section, the translation techniques were listed in the Comment Section of the Bilingual Report, which was extracted from CAT tool.

4. Results

In this section, the frequency of each procedure used in the translation process as well as several examples of them will be presented.

Table 1

The Frequency of Translation Procedures

some examples of commonly used procedures will be presented in order to have a better view of the procedures employed by the translator in dealing with the text.

Modulation:

ST: She was lucky enough to find a seat at this hour…

روز شانسش بود که آن موقع روز صندلی خالی پیدا کرد...

ST: If you thought about it…

اگر از این زاویه به ماجرا نگاه کنیم...

ST: …trying to divert the course of her thoughts.

...سعی کرد به چیز دیگری فکر کند.

ST: She crossed a street at a red light and had to run to avoid being hit by a car.

چون چراغ راهنمایی سبز بود، مجبور بود بدود تا تصادف نکند.

ST: …there was still a bit of daylight.

...هوا هنوز تاریک‌تاریک نشده بود.

Transposition:

ST: No one but her to do all the chores…

تمام کارهای خانه را تنهایی انجام می‌داد...

ST: They were always worried about money.

همیشه دغدغۀ مالی داشتند.

ST: She’d sleep peacefully hearing him breathe.

با شنیدن نفس‌‎های همسرش با آرامش می‌خوابید.

ST: … sobbing in indignant protest until she fell asleep . . .

... و خشم و اعتراضش را با گریه و زاری ابراز کند.

ST: For a while Rosa went on joking with Tina about what had happened.

رزا چند دقیقه‌ای سر این موضوع تینا را دست می‌انداخت.

Explicitation:

ST: She was lucky enough to find a seat at this hour

روز شانسش بود که آن موقع روز صندلی خالی پیدا کرد.

ST: She didn’t want to think about herself or her own life; it got her down — she always ended up depressed.

نمی‌خواست به خودش یا زندگی‌اش بیندیشد. وقتی که به این چیزها فکر می‌کرد، روح و روانش نابود می‌شد و همیشه چیزی جز ناراحتی برایش نداشت.

ST: Someone asked about a stop and the fare collector…

یکی از مسافران سراغ ایستگاهی را از کرایه‌چی گرفت...

ST: Against her will, Tina saw a woman with dyed blonde hair…

چشمش به صحنه‌ای افتاد که اصلاً دوست نداشت ببیند؛ زنی را با موهای بلوندشده دید که…

Equivalence:

ST: …butter wouldn’t melt in their mouths,…

خودشان را به موش‌مردگی می‌زدند...

ST: Those words were like a lightning bolt suddenly striking her.

این جمله مانند تیری بر قلبش فرود آمد.

ST: She would come out alive…

آیا عمرش هنوز به دنیاست؟

ST: …and her mind began to whirl like a spinning top.

و دنیا دور سرش می‌چرخید.

ST: Tina began to exhume her dead…

تینا از زنده و مرده‌اش برای او تعریف کرد

Translators face problems such as finding the appropriate vocabulary item or grammatical structure during the translation process. Since some of these problems were simply the result of not knowing the meaning of the words, they were removed from the annotation process. Here are some examples of translation problems and the translator's solutions mentioned during the translation process.

ST1: It would have been harder to watch them suffer for years and years, maybe it had been her destiny to be left alone in the world; she couldn’t even keep a cat or a dog in that tiny room, and the poor canary Rosa had given her had died right away, doubtless for lack of fresh air and sunshine.

آن‌طوری برایش سخت‌تر می‌شد که سال‌ها رنج کشیدنشان را تماشا می‌کرد؛ شاید سرنوشتش این بود که در دنیا تنها بماند. حتی نمی‌توانست گربه‌ای، سگی، چیزی را در آن اتاق کوچک نگه دارد. آن قناری بخت‌برگشته‌ای هم که رزا به او داده بود خیلی زود به‌خاطر کمبود هوای تازه و نور خوشید مرد...

Translator’s comment:

معمولاً برای right away همیشه بلافاصله و بی‌درنگ به ذهن ما می‌آید. اما همش حس می‌کردم اینجا این واژه به درد نمی‌خورد. چون اگر حیوانی بلافاصله در شرایطی بمیرد، قطعاً انسان هم نمی‌تواند زنده بماند. پس به‌جای آن  «خیلی زود» را گذاشتم که انگار بعد چند روزی مرده.

ST2: She would see countless couples come out singing or splitting their sides with laughter; sometimes they would get into fistfights there in the middle of the street, shouting the crudest insults at each other, then they would patch things up and disappear, arms around each other, down the dark streets; other times a patrol car would come and take them away.

زن و مردهای بی‌شماری را می‌دید که باهم بیرون می‌آمدند و آواز می‌خواندند یا با خنده از هم جدا می‌شدند. گاهی وسط خیابان یقۀ هم را می‌گرفتند و هر چه که از دهانشان بیرون می‌آمد نثار هم می‌کردند؛ کمی بعد، آشتی می‌کردند و دست روی شانۀ هم می‌گذاشتند و در آن خیابان‌های تاریک ناپدید می‌شدند. در غیر این صورت، ماشین گشت می‌آمد و جمعشان می‌کرد.

Translator’s comment:

ترجمه‌هایی که برای عبارت arms around each other در اینترنت پیدا کردم دست‌دردست هم بود. اما حس می‌کردم این معنا را خوب منتقل نمی‌کند. مشکل ترجمه را با استفاده از تصاویر گوگل حل کردم.

ST3: Convinced of her fate, she meekly let herself be led along.

تقدیرش را پذیرفت و بی‌سروصدا همراه مرد رفت.

Translator’s comment:

کلی برای meekly دنبال معادل گشتم ولی معادلی درست‌وحسابی پیدا نشد. متواضعانه، حلیمانه، با فروتنی، از روی افتادگی و…. ولی هیچ‌کدام جالب نیستند برای اینجا. آخرش ساده‌ترین حالت ممکن برای توصیف این حالت را با استفاده از شم زبانی نوشتم یعنی بی‌سروصدا.

ST4: They had suffocated one poor girl with her own pillows, in her own house, after . . .

دختری بیچاره را در خانۀ خودش و با بالشت خودش خفه کرده‌اند؛ اما قبل از آن...

Translator’s comment:

تو این جمله خیلی سخت بود که چطوری after رو بیارم آخر جمله که اون سه‌نقطه هم که «سبک نویسنده است» بیاد آخر جمله. دینوتیشن مینینگ واژه نمی‌ذاشت که چیز دیگه‌ای به ذهنم بیاد. تا اینکه گفتم برعکش کنم و به‌جای بعد، بگم قبل. این‌طوری دیگه سه‌نقطه اومد ته خط.

5. Discussion

The procedures of oblique translation are used more than the procedures of direct translation in the text. Given the strategy that the translator had adopted for translating the text, the results are consistent with the theory proposed by Vinay and Darbelnet. Modulation, transposition, and explicitation had the highest frequencies among the procedures, respectively. Modulation is seen by Vinay and Darbelnet as "the touchstone of a skilled translator", whereas transposition "just demonstrates a very solid mastery of the target language" (2004, p. 246).

Even though it is difficult to trace the interactions that occur in the translators' minds until a solution is reached, the comments the translators mention about the text problems during the translation process can provide useful hints about the way they reach the solutions. The findings of this study can be used in teaching problem-solving skills in translation. This field has room for much research, so it is hoped that this research study will be the beginning of conducting annotation-based research on other texts with more details and a higher quality. As mentioned in the introduction, similar research has been done in other languages, but differences in translation in different languages require conducting separate research studies.

In the case of borrowing words, it is necessary to mention that most of these words are embedded in Persian and are used by general public, words like neon, rocking chair, blonde, drama, baseball, tone, and address. Since the narrative was initially written in Spanish and translated into English, and then translated into Persian, and because passive sentences are common in English literature, it is assumed that the frequency of passive sentences in Spanish is substantially lower than in English. They were rarely used in this story.

It can be even argued that the occurrence of passive sentences in Spanish is fewer than their occurrence in Persian, since when we examined the translation, we saw that the passive sentences of the target text were written as active sentences in the source text. This is actually what we call "fingerprint" in Translation Studies.

Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that the translators, who follow their strategy throughout the translation process, apply procedures related to the chosen strategy subconsciously] and do not need to be obsessively careful about the words and structures they choose. Also, the solutions to translation problems faced by translators are automatically influenced by the translation strategy. Another interesting and accidental result of this study was that no matter how much the translation is TT-oriented and the translator takes the reader's side, the "fingerprint" of the source language, the author, and the translator remains on the text (Schiavi, 1996, p. 14). Despite the widespread use of passive structures in English, the use of active structures in the Spanish text has also impacted the English text.

Conflict of interest

The author(s) certify/certifies that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest (such as honoraria; educational grants; participation in speakers’ bureaus; membership, employment, consultancies, stock ownership, or other equity interest; and expert testimony or patent-licensing arrangements), or non-financial interest (such as personal or professional relationships, affiliations, knowledge or beliefs) in the subject matter or materials discussed in the present research paper.