On the Necessity of Foreignization

In a recent article I referred to a draft of a Ziga Gospel of John 3:16:

"God wanted to possess the earth so much that he sent his only son so that whoever was deceived by him would not perish but would become a wandering ghost forever."
–John 3:16 (First draft, local translator, Ziga translation, Burkina Faso).

The draft illustrates well the disruptive dynamics of domestication and foreignization. As Andrew Wall describes: Exact transmission of meaning from one linguistic medium to another is constantly hampered not only by structural and cultural difference; the words of the receptor language are pre-loaded, and the old cargo drags the new into areas uncharted in the source language. In the end the translator has simply to do his best and take risks in a high-risk business. A respondent said:  "I just love the Ziga example. Among my own Tarok people here in Nigeria there is an interesting scenario with the Jesus Film. In 1983, I was approached to adapt my translation for the production of the lip-sinked edition. I objected on the grounds that it would create a cultural problem and so we did the subtitled edition. Many years after, a new production crew came on board and approached me gain. I objected but they got other people who are now fluent in reading the language. However, now there is a major problem. Each time the film is shown and the episode of trial and crucifixion are displayed, the non-church members of the audience leave in anger that a 'Tarok speaker' should not put up with such humiliation. Appreciation of receptor culture is so critical even in the use of translated scriptures." In this case foreignization was necessary for the audience to even have the opportunity of giving the film a first hearing. It created the conditions for acceptability. The producers, assuming perhaps that lip-sinking is both technologically and and aesthetically superior, domesticated the film, giving Jesus the Tarok language. Hearing Jesus speak in a foreign language in this case was a necessary first step in understanding.