Abstract:

This paper focuses on the translation of humour in Don Quixote to Thai.  To achieve a humorous effect equivalent to that of the original text is considered a difficult translation task, due to its very nature. According to Vandaele (2002:150), the percep- tion and the production of humour are individual and subjective. Translating humour from Spanish to Thai, a very different language both linguistically and culturally, is particularly problematic  because the translator not only faces the linguistic problem of archaic language use, but  also the cultural and historical context, all of which make it difficult to comprehend this monumental work, even for some contemporary readers whose native language is Spanish.  In  this paper, the linguistic, cultural and temporal difficulties in the translation of humor  are  analyzed, and the strategies of “domestication” and “foreignization” as employed by the translator, Swangwan Tra- icharoenwiwat (2005), are investigated to determine whether they produce equivalent humorous effect on Thai readers.

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