Abstract:
This research aims to search for translation techniques to be employed in translating spells, which are wordplays in the forms of anadromes and palindromes, from the graphic novel titled Zatanna by Paul Dini. In this study, 3 techniques have been proposed: 1. Gideon Toury's Translation Norms, J. L. Austin's Speech Act Theory, and Assanee Poolrak's Process of Bhāratānuvād may serve as a guideline to make the translated text acceptable to readers, according to Thai magic language norms. 2. Ernest August Gutts Relevance Theory and Dirk Delabastitas Strategy of translating puns may be used as a guideline to substitute the source language wordplay and to produce the effect that is closest to the source text both in terms of meaning and play-on-words. The researcher's choices of Thai wordplays are reversed-speech (คำผวน) and Kalapad prosody in Thai poetry (ฉันทลักษณ์ของกลบท). 3. Michal Borodos Strategy of translating cartoons may assist in conveying the content and stylistic of English original into Thai translation in the most realistic way. It is found that the use of Pali and Sanskrit loanwords following the Bhāratānuvād process can make the language of spell sacred according to Thai magic language norms. The reversed-speech and Kalapad prosody can produce an effect that is as close to the original as possible. Given that they are play-on-words that most Thai users are familiar with, there is no need to make an unnecessary effort to understand them. Finally, the Strategy of translating cartoons, which consist of Addition, Condensation, and Transformation, is deemed effective for translating spells and other texts as well.