This article reframes the Western Sahara dispute as a translational struggle over sovereignty rather than a primarily geopolitical or juridical conflict. It argues that sovereignty in this case is not a stable legal category awaiting recognition, but a concept produced and reconfigured as it travels across asymmetrical epistemic regimes-precolonial Maghrebi political practice, colonial administration, and the institutional language of international law. Drawing on postcolonial Translation Studies and critical international legal scholarship, the article shows how colonial translation regimes rendered Moroccan relational sovereignty-anchored in the bay'a-legible only as symbolic loyalty, generating archival silences that later structured what could count as admissible evidence. It then analyzes the International Court of Justice's 1975 Advisory Opinion as a translation regime that both acknowledged "legal ties" and neutralized their sovereign force by domesticating bay'a as "allegiance", privileging colonial documentation, and evaluating Saharan governance through Westphalian criteria. The article analyzes Morocco's counter-hegemonic strategy of "counter-translation", especially through narrative reframing and hybrid political texts such as the 2007 Autonomy Plan. The article concludes that translation is not merely implicated in colonial containment; it can also operate as a decolonial strategy-expanding the field of intelligibility, recovering silenced genealogies of authority, and enabling a pluriversal conception of sovereignty.
Chinese poses distinctive challenges in simultaneous interpreting due to its rapid articulation rate (often exceeding 240 characters per minute), structural compactness and frequent use of culturally dense expressions such as idioms (ch & eacute;ngyu). While these features are widely acknowledged in interpreter training, their cognitive implications and strategic management remain under-theorised. This article addresses this gap by proposing a tripartite framework, cognitive, real-time and psychological strategies, for managing high information density and fast speech in Chinese - English simultaneous interpreting. Drawing on Gile's Effort Models, the article conceptualises these challenges as intensified Listening and Analysis (L) and Memory (M) efforts. Through structured analysis of authentic political discourse from official Chinese sources, it demonstrates how professional interpreters deploy specific, observable tactics, including chunking, selective compression, anticipatory mapping and stress-regulation techniques, to maintain output coherence under cognitive load. The study contributes to both interpreting theory and pedagogy by operationalising 'information density' and linking linguistic features to strategic behaviour within a recognised cognitive framework.
This article uses Li Er's Cherries on a Pomegranate Tree as a case study to examine the translation and overseas dissemination of contemporary Chinese literature in German, English, and Italian contexts. It analyses how strategies such as amplification, creative and literal translation, annotation, and prosodic reconstruction are applied to xi & emacr;h & ograve;uyu (sic)(sic)(sic), folk rhymes, poetic language, and puns. By comparing paratextual design and reader reception across editions, the article highlights the role of paratexts in shaping foreign readers' engagement. It argues that translating Chinese fiction is a multi-layered negotiation involving literary systems, cultural discourse, and reader expectations, and that the global circulation of Chinese literature requires attention to both translation and reception.
Chinese political discourse employs a sophisticated system of numerical expressions that function as semantic condensations of complex policies, ideologies, and rhetorical strategies. These 'semantic numbers' present unique challenges for translators and interpreters. Unlike simple numerical references, these expressions encode entire philosophical frameworks, historical contexts, and political commitments that cannot be adequately conveyed through literal translation alone. This article examines 30 key numerical expressions across seven thematic categories, analysing their semantic cores, cultural-political contexts, and translation implications. Drawing on examples from contemporary Chinese political rhetoric, this study demonstrates that successful translation of these expressions requires not merely linguistic competence but also deep knowledge of China's political ecosystem, ideological evolution, and rhetorical traditions. The article provides practical strategies for navigating these challenges, including contextual research methods, terminological consistency approaches, and techniques for balancing accuracy with accessibility for target audiences. As China's global influence expands and cross-cultural communication intensifies, the ability to accurately decode and render these 'semantic numbers' becomes increasingly critical for professional translators and interpreters in diplomatic, journalistic, academic, and business contexts.
