Global Journal of Human-Social Science, A: Arts and Humanities, Volume 22 Issue 5

c) Culture Thriveni (2002) defines culture as “a kind of complexity. It includes knowledge, belief, art, moral, law, custom and some habits formed by living in a certain society”. Culture is central to language, it is the way of life of a people. The two are closely knit together. Culture is a way of life and language is an extension of it. We should note that in translation, a relationship is established between two cultures, translation is thus translating cultures. d) Characteristics of a poem Each field of translation has its own peculiarity, and these peculiarities make the translation of a poem very difficult. A poem consists of form and meaning. The meaning of a poem is therefore realized by both form and meaning. Rhythm, sound and rhyme constitute form, while lexical and stylistic elements constitute meaning. Rhythm is represented by the meter which in turn is influenced by stress in a certain language. Sound also plays a very important role as it is closely related to linguistic characteristics. All these put together comprise the aesthetic nature of a poem. The aesthetic values according to Newmark (1981), “ are dependent on the structure (or poetic structure), metaphor, and sound. Sound is anything connected with sound cultivation, including rhyme, rhythm, assonance, onomatopoeia etc. It is difficult to find an equivalent in a target language which evokes the same image, that is to say, the same connotation and denotation in the reader of the target culture as in the reader of the source culture. III. D ifferences between E nglish L anguage and IGBO L anguages The two belong to different language families and there is a wide gap between them. Baker, (1992) stressing the importance of knowing the differences between languages notes that, “ translators should find it useful to investigate and compare the expression of such categories and meanings associated with various structures in their source and target languages”. The English language is more advanced than the Igbo language. Both have their particular ways of expressions. Their perception of the world is completely different and therefore, have different cultures. The structural and lexical differences between languages could pose a great problem to the translator. That is why we are giving a brief comparison of English and Igbo languages. Below are some differences between the languages : Igbo language has 36 letters of the alphabet which represent the sounds of standard Igbo while English has 24. The 36 letters are always written in alphabetical order with the simple letters (monographs) placed before the double ones (diagraphs) and the ones without dots placed before the dotted ones. (Onukawa, 2011:7). The Igbo alphabet is made of vowels and consonants just like in English language, but with differences. Igbo has 28 consonants and 8 vowels, while English language has 31 consonants and 5 vowels. The Igbo vowels is further divided into heavy ( e i o u) and light vowels ( a ị ọ ụ ). The dots are very important in Igbo language to avoid ambiguity in meanings of words that are alike. Igbo is tone language. Tones are necessary in Igbo to indicate the correct pronunciations and meanings of every word, phrase or sentence. They help to disambiguate words which are otherwise alike. It is also a sentential and descriptive language. While English has specific term for a concept, Igbo language, most times describes a concept with a sentence. (Ijioma: 2018). Igbo language operates a centrifugal syntax while English operates a centripetal. This implies that the qualifiers and determiners come quite often after the noun in Igbo. (Ijioma: op.cit). IV. M ethodology Many theorists have proposed different theories of translating poetry. Schulte (1992) advocates the method of multiple translations. The reason being that, since the exact equivalents cannot be established for the transferal of poetic texts. Each translator can now highlight specific aspects provided the purpose is achieved. Lefevere (1977) proposed the following approaches to translation: phonemic; literal; metrical; poetry into prose; rhymed; blank verse; interpretation or imitation. We are of the view that translation strategies to be employed in any translation depend on the texts, the purpose, the audience, the environment. Many approaches may come into play in a text, no one is sacrosanct. The main aim of translation is to render a text that has the same effect of the source in the target text. And in the case of poetry, we are of the opinion that a poem should be translated into a poem, staying faithful to the poetic devices as far as the target language allows. Volume XXII Issue V Version I 94 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2022 © 2022 Global Journals A Translating Poetry into Indigenous Languages: The Case of Igbo Language a) Sources of Data The two poems My Mother by Ann Taylor published in 1807and Rain by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in 1842. b) Data Presentation The two poems are presented in two columns, the source text in English in the first column, while the Igbo translated version is in the second.