PRESSE ET TRADUCTION : QUAND « LA LANGUE DE MACRON » NE PASSE PAS
TRANSLATION AND THE MEDIA: WHEN “MACRON’S LANGUAGE” REMAINS INCOMPREHENSIBLE

Summary/Abstract: The paper focuses on press translation and its importance in today’s globalized world and comprises a case study: the analysis of the way in which a statement pertaining to France’s president Emmanuel Macron has been translated into the anglophone and Romanian press. Press translation is marked by at least two paradoxes: it is different from what is called “professional translation” and it is not based on a single source text. We inquire whether press translation exists as such: would it be more accurate to speak about adaptation and localization of the informative content for the target audience? The case study is represented by the various translations of the verb “emmerder” uttered by Emmanuel Macron during an interview in January 2022, when he expressed his desire to make life difficult to unvaccinated people. For any foreign audience, this declaration of the French president may be characterized as “soft news”. We provide the definition of the verb “emmerder” as mentioned by the French dictionary and investigate the way in which this verb has been translated in the anglophone and Romanian press: from milder choices to stronger or even shocking translations. The paper also examines the objectivity of the press discourse when characterizing Macron’s statement and analyzes the titles of several articles published in the anglophone and Romanian press, scaling them based on their objectivity/subjectivity. The manner in which political statements are translated is of maximal importance, as it has a major impact on the target audience.

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