War , Patriotism , and Nationality in the Nor wegian and Swedish Translations of Cherry Ames
lowed to take some time off and visit the nearby village . They catch a ride with the postman and are fascinated by the quaint landscape and the English architecture , at the same time as they are depressed by the ravages of the war , and , most of all , thankful for the fact that they live far away from the war in America . On their excursion , they experience cultural differences between the United States and England . They can see the country ’ s poverty reflected in a window shop where there are “ no eggs , no red meat , no oranges ” ( 43 ). They even see the ravages of war in a house , where one of the walls is missing and they can see straight into a kitchen where a woman stands by the stove . They also wonder if they are allowed to visit a café and eat some of the food that was so hard to come by in England . They are surprised by the waitress ’ dialect in the café and can barely understand her . The passage where Cherry and her friends go to this village stretches over almost five pages , all of which are omitted from the Swedish target text , resulting in a translation where the overall American perspective in the novel is significantly toned down . In this passage , Cherry utters a sentence that sums up her thoughts about the war and her feelings of patriotism : “ Not very gay , this business of having war in your own front yard ,” Cherry summed up . She thought gratefully how lucky she was to be an American ” ( 45 ), which is a sentence that has been kept and translated quite literally in the Norwegian target text .
Another part of the book where the geographical context , and hence also nationality , has been altered is a passage where Wade tells Cherry and the wounded soldiers where he has flown before . He tells them that he has flown “[ i ] n China and over the Hump ” ( 13 ), translated as “[ i ] Kina eller over dammen ” ( 14 ) in the Norwegian target text , meaning over “ China and the Atlantic Ocean .” As regards “ over dammen ,” we are no longer in Asia , but still in an area well trafficked by
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