A Study of Translation Strategies in Prophetic Cards for Shrines and Temples in Bangkok Area

Abstract

      The research aims to study the translation strategies used to translate prophetic cards from shrines and temples in Bangkok from Chinese into Thai. The researcher surveyed the target area and collected 240 prophetic cards from 7 shrines and temples around Bangkok as research data from January 15, 2022, to February 5, 2022, in a total of 3 weeks’ time. The research data were analyzed and discussed based on various translation theories such as Peter Newmark's Theory of Translation, Associate Professor Dr. Wanna Saeng-aramruang's Theories of Translation, Thai-Chinese translation by Associate Professor Dr. Kanokporn Numthong and Professor Supannee Pinmanee's Modern Age Translation Scriptures. The results revealed that there were 6 types of strategies employed to translate the prophecy which included: 1) a literal translation which preserves the original language format as much as possible; 2) a meaning-focused translation which focuses on the overall important content of the original text; 3) a reduction translation which cuts out unnecessary content to make the text more understandable; 4) an additional translation which is an amplification of the content to make the text clearer and easier to be understood by readers; 5) an adaptation translation which is a copying of the translated text and then modifying, adding, and shortening it to make it more suitable with the target language and 6) a generalization translation which is a broad interpretation of what is unknown in the target culture and expands the overall meaning or definitions of contents until it matches or is understandable by readers of the target culture.  To choose suitable translation strategies, translators need to take a careful consideration and be aware of their choices of translation methods. To elaborate, they need to make a decision about how they want their translation works to be conveyed. Translators must be aware of meaning of the words that they use in a particular context of the target language. Moreover, translators need to consider the appropriate language used to successfully communicate with the readers of the target language who have different culture to make them understand the original meaning that the authors in the source culture want to express. With this, the translation works could convey its’ intended meaning, and it could create the valuable and beneficial translation works for Thai-Chinese translation field in various dimensions.