Azərbaycan Respublikası “ÇAĞ” Öyrətim İşlətmələri

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.  The meaning of colours and the symbolism of geometrical and architectural 
forms that could be contradictory sometimes from one region to another. 
.  The cultural stereotypes and the social clichés in use in the hosting societies 
of the advertising message (i.e. the representation of oneself and of others, ethnic 
preferences, religious convictions, national spirit, etc.) 
All of these cultural elements could play a decisive role not only in the good 
understanding of the advertising message but also, and especially, in its success on 
the targeted market. Having disregarded the "weight" of local cultures, numerous 
multinationals learnt it to their cost. The cultural signs could be a source of prob-
lems in the commercial communication but they may also optimize the beneficial 
effects by meeting the local consumer's wishes of identification and complicity. In 
any case, mastering these signs is a "technical know-how" that a translator/localizer 
ought to highlight and benefit from in a materialistic world where everything is ne-
gotiable. And it is up to the translator to use his/her cleverness to bargain for a better 
future. 
 
MOVIE TRANSLATION MISTAKES 
Gunay HAJIYEVA 
Azerbaijan University of Languages 
Translation Fakulty Course: III 
Supervisor: Tarana Mammadova 
 
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen! 
I want to begin my speech with Chris Ling’s words, who owns a translation ser-
vice company. "The best thing about my job is I get to watch movies before everyone 
else". Today I want to talk you about Movie Translation Mistakes. The United States is 
undoubtedly the first largest exporter of audiovisual products in the world. Nowadays, 
audiovisual products from the United States dominate, not exclusively but mostly, 
therefore the translation of these products into Azerbaijani becomes necessary. The 
consequent contact situation between English and Azerbaijani during the translation 
process often results in language interference and borrowings. Traditionally, these 
borrowings affect the phonological, morphological, syntactic, lexical or semantic 
structures of the target language. However, some of this interference affects not only 
the linguistic structure, but also the socio-cultural and communicative structure of the 
target language. This usually happens when certain speech acts, colloquial expressions, 
etc., are translated literally. This mostly happens in movie translation. Movie trans-
lation can be evidenced, for example, in movie theatres or while watching TV at 
home, and in both cases errors or omissions in subtitles catch the eye of many. It is 
obviously not acceptable if a subtitle has several misprints or translation errors, but 
in fact, the preparation of movie subtitles requires consideration of a number of details 

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that make this type of translation complicated. A bilingual movie-watcher can often 
recognize dubbing mistakes through knowledge of the original version. So translators 
who translate movies are regularly criticized for their apparently endless “mistakes”. 
So I want to speak about movie mistakes given in the translation of the movie 
“Home Alone”. I’ll compare 2 translations: translation of Azerbaijan teleradio trans-
missions close joint-stock company and translation of ANS. In “Home Alone 1” there 
is a dialogue between Kevin and Linnie. There Linnie answers Kevin’s question: 
"Listen, Kevin, what are you so worried about? You know that Mom is going 
to pack your stuff anyway. You are what the French call “Les Incompetent!" 
says Linnie. 
The translation of the French word “Les Incompetent” was given in Azerbaijani 
in the translation of Azerbaijan teleradio transmissions close joint-stock company: 
“Bilirsən fransızlar sənin kimilərinə nə deyirlər?” – “Səlahiyyətsiz”. 
But in reality it must not be translated, because the movie is in English and just 
the words in English must be translated. Linnie wants to emphasize her speech with 
the French word. The translation must be so: Fransızlar sənin kimilərinə “Les Incom-
petent” deyirlər. 
The second mistake is in this part: 
Kay, while still in bed and under the covers, picks up her watch. "Peter!" she 
shouts, as they both jump out of bed. "We slept in!" they shout in unison, as they run 
out of the bedroom. 
  The translation in Azerbaijani was given so in Azerbaijan teleradio transmissions 
close joint-stock company: 
Piter, biz yuxuya qalmışıq. 
But according to lexical standards it is not acceptable. It must be so: Piter, yatıb 
qalmışıq. 
There is a dialogue in aeroport terminal. So Peter, Kay and family run through 
the airport terminal towards the gate from which their plane is departing. "Hold the 
plane," yells Peter. "Did we miss the flight?" asks Kay. "No, you just made it. Take 
whatever is free," replies the attendant. 
Here the sentence “you just made it” was translated in Azerbaijan teleradio trans-
missions close joint-stock company as “10 saniyəniz var hələ”. But it is not true 
translation. The real translation is “Vaxtında çatdınız”. 
Kevin runs into Buzz's room, then opens Buzz's chest. Kevin reads a playboy 
magazine. He then finds some firecrackers. "Cool, firecrackers”. Buzz, I'm going 
through all your private stuff. 
The word “firecrackers” was translated in ANS as “atəşfəşanlar”. But it is not 
true lexically. “Atəşfəşan” is the event that the firecrackers are burned. The real trans-
lation is “Fişənglər”. 

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Here also the sentence “Buzz, I'm going through all your private stuff” was not 
translated truly in Azerbaijan teleradio transmissions close joint-stock company. 
They translate as “Baz, əşyalarında qurdalanıram”. But it would be better “Baz, 
əşyalarını qurdalayıram”. 
One of the mistakes is in this part. Kevin is hiding under his parent's bed and 
then he says: "This is ridiculous. Only a whimp would be hiding under a bed. And I 
can't be a whimp. I'm the man of the house." Kevin crawls out from under the bed. 
Here the sentence “Only a whimp would be hiding under a bed” was translated 
in ANS as “Ancaq qızlar çarpayının altında gizlənirlər”. But it is so: Ancaq ağıl-
dankəmlər çarpayının altında gizlənirlər. 
In “Home Alone 2” the standard phrases were translated incorrectly in Azerbaijan 
teleradio transmissions close joint-stock company. So from the beginning to the end 
the phrase “Merry Christmas!” was translated as “Şən Miladlar!”, and the phrase 
“Happy New Year!” was translated as “Xoşbəxt Yeni İllər!” But they must be “Milad 
Bayramınız Mübarək!” and “Yeni İliniz Mübarək!” 
It may seem that translating movies is an easy task as many movies and series 
involve the use of everyday language. However, if we want to fathom what we see on 
television, there are quite a few hospital or police series that involve medical and 
forensic terms and movies that deal with environment protection, diplomacy and 
multiple other fields. Therefore the translator of movies must be prepared for any 
surprise that may occur in a movie. Furthermore, movie translators must recognise 
any cultural cues and connotations that are particularly difficult to translate, as the 
amount of text fitted in the screen is limited. In the case of dubbing it may sometimes 
be easier, for example, to explain or even reword an expression, yet the same cannot 
be easily accomplished with subtitles. 
Also subtitle translation requires a knowledge of foreign cultures and usage of 
words. Familiarity with the local culture is also necessary. When we translate a local 
production into other languages, we need to know the local slang and language to 
be able to express their meaning to the fullest. 
In another case the actors doing the dubbing at her studio often do not know the 
source language, usually English. They are guided by the translated script, coupled 
with the original actors’ facial expressions and tone of voice, which they do hear 
several times before beginning their own recording. The adjusters also generally do 
not understand the source movie but rely on the same written text and visual cues to 
guide their work. It is a fact that in this kind of situation the real responsibility for 
avoiding errors in meaning resides with the translator. 
Many movie translations are also available on the Internet but their quality cannot 
always be trusted. Although good translations of movies can sometimes be seen, 
usually the translations are full of semantic and spelling errors as they have been 
predominantly translated by amateurs and, as a rule, from tape only. There are pro-

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bably few people who have not complained about the bad translation of DVDs, 
therefore utmost care is needed. 
Translators must follow the rules, enlarge their cultural knowledge and outlook 
to avoid such translation mistakes. 
Thank you for your attention! 
 
CULTURAL TRANSLATION 
Ulya SHIRINZADE 
Bakı Dövlət universiteti Biologiya fakultəsi, 109b qrupu  
Elmi rəhbəri: Abbasov Abbas 
 
Culture and intercultural competence and awareness that rise out of experience 
of culture, are far more complex phenomena than it may seem to the translator. The 
more a translator is aware of complexities of differences between cultures, the better 
a translator s/he will be. It is probably right to say that there has never been a time 
when the community of translators was unaware of cultural differences and their 
significance for translation. Translation theorists have been cognizant of the problems 
attendant upon cultural knowledge and cultural differences at least since ancient Rome. 
Cultural knowledge and cultural differences have been a major focus of translator 
training and translation theory for as long as either has been in existence. The main 
concern has traditionally been with words and phrases that are so heavily and exclu-
sively grounded in one culture that they are almost impossible to translate into the 
terms – verbal or otherwise – of another. Long debate have been held over when to 
paraphrase, when to use the nearest local equivalent, when to coin a new word by 
translating literally, and when to transcribe. All these “untranslatable” cultural-bound 
words and phrases continued to fascinate translators and translation theorists. 
The first theory developed in this field was introduced by Mounin in 1963 who 
underlined the importance of the signification of a lexical item claiming that only if 
this notion is considered will the translated item fulfill its function correctly. The 
problem with this theory is that all the cultural elements do not involve just the items, 
what a translator should do in the case of cultural implications which are implied in 
the background knowledge of SL readers? 
The notion of culture is essential to considering the implications for translation 
and, despite the differences in opinion as to whether language is part of culture or 
not, the two notions of culture and language appear to be inseparable. In 1964, Nida 
discussed the problems of correspondence in translation, conferred equal importance 
to both linguistic and cultural differences between the SL and the TL and concluded 
that differences between cultures may cause more severe complications for the trans-
lator than do differences in language structure. It is further explained that parallels in 

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culture often provide a common understanding despite significant formal shifts in the 
translation. According to him cultural implications for translation are thus of signi-
ficant importance as well as lexical concerns. 
Nida's definitions of formal and dynamic equivalence in 1964 considers cultural 
implications for translation. According to him, a "gloss translation" mostly typifies 
formal equivalence where form and content are reproduced as faithfully as possible 
and the TL reader is able to "understand as much as he can of the customs, manner of 
thought, and means of expression" of the SL context. Contrasting with this idea, 
dynamic equivalence "tries to relate the receptor to modes of behavior relevant within 
the context of his own culture" without insisting that he "understand the cultural 
patterns of the source-language context". According to him problems may vary in 
scope depending on the cultural and linguistic gap between the two (or more) lan-
guages concerned. 
It can be said that the first concept in cultural translation studies was cultural 
turn that in 1978 was presaged by the work on Polysystems and translation norms by 
Even-Zohar and in 1980 by Toury. They dismiss the linguistic kinds of theories of 
translation and refer to them as having moved from word to text as a unit but not 
beyond. They themselves go beyond language and focus on the interaction between 
translation and culture, on the way culture impacts and constraints translation and on 
the larger issues of context, history and convention. 
Therefore, the move from translation as a text to translation as culture and politics 
is what they call it a Cultural Turn in translation studies and became the ground for a 
metaphor adopted by Bassnett and Lefevere in 1990. In fact Cultural Turn is the 
metaphor adopted by Cultural Studies oriented translation theories to refer to the 
analysis of translation in its cultural, political, and ideological context. 
Key words: Culture, intercultural, translation theorists, tradition, customs 
SUMMARY 
Culture and intercultural competence and awareness that rise out of experience 
of culture, are far more complex phenomena than it may seem to the translator. The 
more a translator is aware of complexities of differences between cultures, the better 
a translator s/he will be. It is probably right to say that there has never been a time 
when the community of translators was unaware of cultural differences and their 
significance for translation. Translation theorists have been cognizant of the problems 
attendant upon cultural knowledge and cultural differences at least since ancient Rome. 
Cultural knowledge and cultural differences have been a major focus of translator 
training and translation theory for as long as either has been in existence. The main 
concern has traditionally been with words and phrases that are so heavily and exclu-
sively grounded in one culture that they are almost impossible to translate into the 
terms – verbal or otherwise – of another. Long debate have been held over when to 
paraphrase, when to use the nearest local equivalent, when to coin a new word by 

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translating literally, and when to transcribe. All these “untranslatable” cultural-bound 
words and phrases continued to fascinate translators and translation theorists. 
The first theory developed in this field was introduced by Mounin in 1963 who 
underlined the importance of the signification of a lexical item claiming that only if 
this notion is considered will the translated item fulfill its function correctly. 
Nida's definitions of formal and dynamic equivalence in 1964 considers cultural 
implications for translation. 
It can be said that the first concept in cultural translation studies was cultural 
turn that in 1978 was presaged by the work on Polysystems and translation norms by 
Even-Zohar and in 1980 by Toury. 
REFERENCES: 
1.  Lefevere, André (1992). Translation History Culture. London: Routledge. 
2.  Munday, Jeremy (2001). Introducing Translation Studies. Tehran: Yalda Ghalam. 
3.  Newmark, Peter (1981). Approaches to Translation. Oxford: Pregamon Press. 
4.  Newmark, Peter (1988). A Text Book of Translation. Tehran: Adab. 
 
THE LITERARY TRANSLATION AND ITS PROBLEMS 
Kamran TALIBOV 
Baku Slavic University, translation faculty, the second course,. 
Scientific leader: Necefzade Shabnam 
 
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by 
means of equivalent target language text. This brilliant work, “one of the first attempts 
at a large-scale charting of the field of English-language literary translation”, helps 
demonstrate the importance and scope of literary translation into English. But it goes 
much further – it helps enhance the importance of non-English-language literature, 
in an increasingly globalized world.Literary translation is one of the major specialist 
categories of translation. Literary translators translate both classical and contemporary 
works in any of the three main genres: 
• 
fiction; 
• 
drama; 
• 
poetry. 
They are also employed by the film industry to dub or subtitle films intended for 
foreign audiences.Translation of fiction is very difficult, but due to work of translators 
we can study works of ancient philosophers, myths and legends of ancient civilizations, 
heritage of the European culture, and also works of modern writers.Translators share 
a number of problems whatever the type of the text to be translated but some of the 
problems are very specific to literary translation and therefore need to be discussed 

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seperately.However before attempting to analyse these problems it will help to try and 
narrow down our definition of literary translation since there seems to be a certain 
amount of ambiguity in the way this rubric is used across the field of Translation 
Studies. 
A literary translator's main task is to provide the most accurate translation of the 
original work. This calls not so much for a word-for-word translation of the source 
text, as for an attempt to convey the author's original message and to evoke the ori-
ginal flavour and sentiments of the story for a foreign readership and audience. In the 
case of contemporary literary works, the translator usually works closely with the 
author. The majority of literary translators work freelance. 
In common with all translators, literary translators are required to have a very 
good knowledge of two or more languages and cultures. They are also expected to 
be experts in literature, have a flair for creative writing and be aware of existing trans-
lations of the text they are working on. 
As a rule, literary translation is performed only by the best experts in the field of 
linguistics which are capable to adapt all the coloring from one language to another, 
and thus, without having lost art value of the work of literature. To reflect in fine 
fashion an event in work of literature, the translator should be well familiar with culture 
and country history, its mentality and the period which is described in a work of li-
terature. Without such knowledge translator cannot get message of author’s idea 
across to the reader. 
Except knowledge of a foreign language, the translator should know the native 
language in perfection and to be the master of an epistolary genre. Often translations 
are performed by different writers and though, they are not freely speak foreign lan-
guage, their translations turn out competent, beautiful and easy-to-read. 
The traditional discussion of the problems of literary translation considers finding 
equivalents not just for lexis, syntax or concepts, but also for features like style, 
genre, figurative language, historical stylistic dimensions, polyvalence, connotations 
as well as denotations, cultural items and culture-specific concepts and values. The 
choices made by the translators like the decision whether to retain stylistic features 
of the source language text or whether to retain the historical stylistic dimension of 
the original become all the more important in the case of literary translation. Specific 
complexity for literary translation is carried by the settled expressions, proverbs, 
phraseological units and idiomatic turns. In its works writers often use such technique, 
and without its knowledge translation is almost impossible. Many cases when literary 
translation lost true value of the written are known. It occurred that the translator 
approached to translation word-to-word. The most known mistakes while translating 
are the following expressions: 
John the Baptist (Ioann Krestitel’) - translated as John Baptist 
Saint Virgin (Svyataya Deva) - "Sacred Virginia" or "Sacred Virgin".Literary 
translation has a great number of such expressions.Besides, it is necessary to not 

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forget also about slang expressions which too often occur in works of literature. Each 
country is a heritage of centuries, and has untranslatable folklore, as for example, 
speech of inhabitants of Odessa or Georgia. 
The authors take an analytic point of view for these articles, discussing the merits 
and demerits of specific translations, putting them into the context of the time they 
were published, and not hesitating to outright criticize poor work. This is a good thing, 
because nothing is worse for translation as a whole than poor translations. For example, 
the article on Proust gives a good overview of the translations available and their 
problems, both in register, specific terms used, and even the title chosen for the English 
version of A La Recherche du temps perdu. The author of this article, Anthony Levi, 
helps the reader understand just how difficult it is to translate such a text – not only 
must the translator consider lexis and syntax, but also the many subtle connotations 
Proust’s words vehicle from the complex social structure he wrote about. Another 
example is the article on Cervantes, which gives a good presentation of two translations 
of Don Quixote, with examples that show the different tone and style chosen. However, 
the author dismisses all the other available translations, and it would be nice to have 
an idea why. One could easily make a list of authors who are missing from this work. 
There would be hundreds, if not thousands, from major languages as well as minor 
languages. This does not lessen the value of this encyclopedia, though, even if some 
people will feel left out, especially those from some of the “minor” languages – only 41 
languages are represented. 
The encyclopedia contains an alphabetical list of entries, but this contains two 
serious mistakes. First, while authors are listed in alphabetical order, their names 
are in first name – last name order, which makes it much harder to browse. Second, 
I feel it would have been useful to have separate lists for the three types of articles, 
to make it easier to browse the content of the encyclopedia. I would like to be able to 
see a list of all the articles on translation issues, but they are interspersed with the 
entire contents. 
Giving heed to the issues created problems in the text written in literary style it 
can be clearly seen that there are such kind of untranslatable words in every nation's 
language and beside these factors giving the main correct sense of the word in the 
target language is also depends on translator's knowledge and talent.