The Translator’s Faithfulness: A Case of the English Version of Sembene Ousmane’s Money Order

Translation plays a prominent role in the teaching and learning of foreign languages as well as literature. This discipline which could be said to be as old as man himself has always subjected man’s brain to a rigorous linguistics exercise that brings to fore the complex nature of language. It is, therefore, easy to assert that the process of rendering the message of a language into another requires a great deal of intellectual creativity. This study highlights the constraints and the diverse mechanisms the translator has to consider in order to convey the message without mutilating the meaning intended to the target public. The translator is either a faithful one or a betrayer. It is always believed that translating is falsehood. In the case of Le Mandat of Sembène Ousmane, translated to Money Order, some of these constraints and problems a translator faces are exemplified