Studia Islandica - 01.06.1994, Page 162

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is included in each instance in which the word is actually
used is then determined to a greater or lesser extent by the
impact of the context in which it is found. Having deter-
mined this the next step is to seek an appropriate term or
expression in the language of translation. There may be a
full correspondent, a partial correspondent or no corre-
sponding term at all to be found. To take only one example,
a dictionary listing for the Old Icelandic verb at búa gives
the following principal definitions: “to live, abide, dwell”;
“to live together as man and wife”; “to have a household”;
“to have one’s berth [aboard ship]”; “to make ready”; “to
ornament”; etc., as well as scores of additional meanings
created through the influence of accompanying preposi-
tions (Cleasby and Vigfússon 1957:87).
Having identified the intended usage from among these
various definitions, the translator must then look more
closely at the specific context. The verb at búa in the sense
of “to make ready” could, for instance, be used to refer to
“outfitting” a ship, þat skip býr hann (21), “dressing or
decorating”, Oláfr var búinn á þá leið, at hann var í skar-
latsklœðum (64), “providing and cooking” food and “lay-
ing” a table, especially for a feast, er veizlan búin með inum
beztum föngum (74), and numerous other practices, each of
which needs a specific rendering appropriate to the English
sense. This would definitely not be conveyed by dogmati-
cally repeating “makes/made ready” on the grounds that
this is the general meaning of at búa intended here.
The attempt to analyse how successfully individual
words have been rendered in translation is an important
factor in its assessment, if not the key factor. “Accuracy in
communicative translation,” maintains Newmark, for
instance, “is basically lexical. The translator can treat the
grammar flexibly and adroitly within limits, recasting units
to strengthen the logic of the text. But the lexis must be
accurate” (Newmark 1988:170). In the following section
the attempt will be made to analyze first the core meaning