Through The Looking-Glass

Translation is not made in a vacuum, but it is indisputably influenced by the target culture. Besides the linguistic limits the target language imposes on the text, there are also extra linguistic elements which can decide to a big extent the result of translation. Some of the most influential extra linguistic elements are ideologies. The following paper studies the effect of ideologies in translation of political news texts. Despite the importance of the news in our daily lives, few are the people who studied political news as translated texts. Political news relies heavily on translation but it is rarely simply translated. Political news texts are perceived as sensitive texts because they are ideologically loaded. When the ideological charge of the original text differs from that of the initiator of the translation, the patron, the text is altered and ideological adjustments are made to it so that it does not contradict the ideologies within the target culture and it is not perceived as a potential challenge to the existing social or economic order. These adjustments can also be made intentionally to alter the message in the original text and manipulate the addressees' knowledge of the original culture. Ideological changes are almost impossible to avoid. They are a set of beliefs to which we are exposed from a very early age, and thus influence the way in which we relate to the world. The translator, as part of a culture and society, carries these ideologies into translation, whether intentionally or not. S/he analyzes the original text by superimposing it on his/her own world order and, if the order presented in the text differs from his/her own, makes changes to the text to adjust it to his/her world order.The paper analyzes how translation decisions can be influenced by ideology and reproduces and reinforces stereotypes existing in the target culture about the source culture. The issues are illustrated using examples of English news translated into the Chinese media and analyzing speeches made by foreign leaders in China.