Idiom versus literal in Persian-to-Bengali translation
A Persian-to-Bengali/English translation passage contains: “وقتی خبر شکست را شنید، دل به دریا زد و بار دیگر به میدان رفت.” The scheme gives 3 marks: 1 for the event, 1 for the idiom, 1 for natural target language. Candidate A writes Bengali: “...সে সমুদ্রকে হৃদয়ে আঘাত করল...” (literal). Candidate B writes Bengali: “...সে সাহস করে আবার মাঠে নামল...” Candidate C writes English: “...he took heart and went to the field again.” The exam permits either Bengali or English. The teacher must rank B and C and decide whether A earns the idiom mark. There are 42 scripts; 8 use a literal “sea” expression. The moderation note says “میدان” in this context is not a sports field but the scene of struggle after a defeat.
1. Rank B and C, and mark A out of 3. Justify the idiom mark separately from the target-language mark.
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B = 3/3; C = 2/3; A = 1/3.
- Event mark: all three understand that the person heard of a defeat and returned to the struggle, so all earn 1.
- Idiom mark: دل به دریا زدن means to pluck up courage, not to strike a sea with the heart. B’s সাহস করে and C’s took heart both render the idiom; A’s “হৃদয়ে সমুদ্রকে আঘাত” does not, so A loses this mark.
- Target-language mark: B is natural Bengali and also handles میدان as the arena of struggle. C’s “went to the field” is understandable but less natural in English for a post-defeat return to combat; it keeps the event and idiom but loses the naturalness mark. A’s literal collocation is unnatural, so it also loses this mark.
A therefore gets 1/3, not 2/3: one correct event does not rescue two failed criteria. The ranking is B, then C, then A.
2. Formulate a two-sentence rule for idiom marking that the department can apply to all 42 scripts, and illustrate it with this item.
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Rule: treat an idiom as one lexical unit, identify its function in context, and translate that function with a target-language idiom or plain equivalent; do not transfer the surface image unless the target language uses the same image naturally.
Applied here, دل به دریا زدن is a courage idiom, so সাহস করা or to take heart is correct; “sea” is not part of the meaning. The context note also fixes میدان as the scene of struggle, so মাঠে নামা or enter the fray is better than a sports-field reading. A literal version can earn the event mark but not the idiom or natural-language marks. This rule also explains why the 8 literal “sea” scripts should receive consistent feedback rather than individual leniency.