“An Analysis of the Use of Past Simple and Present Perfect in the English Translation of ‘Broken April’”

Abstract

Translation is a kind of activity which inevitably involves at least two languages and two cultural traditions. Languages contain dialects with various cultural expressions. Ismail Kadare has created a great treasure of dialects from various parts of Albania. Dialects are important sources of words and their vocabulary is important for the understanding of the origin of certain words. The Albanian version of Broken April is a perfect reflection of the Gheg dialect spoken in the Northern part of Albania. According to Guynes (2012), ‘Kadare contradictorily provides readers with an image of the Kanun as both an outdated set of laws averse to modernism and a tradition as vital to the Albanians as the lifestyle of the highlanders and the national myth of the urbanites (p.7) The aim of this research is to clarify the uncertainty of the use of the past simple and present perfect tense in the Albanian English translation. The aim of this research is to find out if the dominance of Geg dialect in the dialogues of ‘Prilli i thyer’ has any impact on the use of present perfect or past simple in the English translation. It also aims to observe if the change of present perfect from ‘Prilli i thyer’ into past tense or vice versa in the English translation ‘Broken April’, carry the same meaning from the source text to the target text.