Music for Travel : A translation study focusing on cultural aspects and the use of adjectives in a text about music and tourism

Abstract: This study deals with the translation from English into Swedish of a text about music and tourism. The special areas of interest were, on the one hand, how to translate references to cultural phenomena and, on the other hand, adjectives of graphic character. The source text is Music and Tourism: on the Road Again by Chris Gibson and John Connell from which all but a few pages from the introductory chapter were translated. The reader of the text would be a person interested in music, tourism and the history of the niche music tourism. With tourism and music come different cultural references, which can pose a problem for a translator. In turn, the cultural references are often phrased in a graphic language in the text, consisting mainly in specific adjectives that need to be as graphic in the target text. To solve the problem of translating a text like this, theories on translation, such as those presented by Vinay & Darbelnet (1995), Nida (2001), Newmark (1988) and Ingo (2007) were consulted. The procedures by Vinay and Darbelnet in particular were proven to be beneficial while translating. When dealing with the references to cultural aspects, Vinay and Darbelnet‟s procedure borrowing in combination with Ingo‟s addition were the ones most useful to the translation. In terms of translating the adjectives, Vinay and Darbelnet‟s transposition was mostly used.