Yellowness as a reflection colonialism

In the source text, the yellow color of Mary’s face is mentioned several times. In my material, there are seven such cases. The notions of Mary’s yellowness are presented in negative con-texts. She is characterized as sick, yellow, ugly, sour, and her hair is described as thin and light.

As Mary transforms from a mean and ugly child into a girl that is no longer angry and resembles her beautiful mother, her yellowness also fades. When the remarks on Mary’s appearance are

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positive, it is often noted that she is no longer as yellow as she used to be, which further under-lines the negativity of yellowness.

Mary’s yellowness is mentioned by the omnipresent narrator, Martha, and Ben Weatherstaff. For instance, in the chapter Nest Building, when Mary has been in Misselthwaite quite a while, it is explained that Mary has seen a reflection of herself and has realized that she looks different and nicer than when she arrived from India. In addition, Martha tells Mary that

“‘Th’ air from thr’ moor has done thee good already.’ … ‘Tha‘rt not night so yeller and tha ‘rt not night so scrawny. Even tha’ hair doesn’t slamp down on that’ head so flat.’” (Burnett 1911:

118).

Kutzer (2000:57) argues that yellowness is on the one hand connected to Mary’s physical and mental health, but on the other hand, it represents orientalist and colonialist atti-tudes towards India. As Kutzer (2000:57) explains, the attention that Mary’s yellow face re-ceives indicates that she is confused with the Other. Kutzer (2000:57) further points out that yellowness is also associated with physical illness and even moral illness, and it links Mary to the exoticized East, more specifically to India, and shows that she is at the beginning an outsider in Misselthwaite and in England. According to Eckford-Prossor (2000:244), Mary Lennox is aligned into Englishness via her ever-pinkening complexion.

The connection between yellowness and the impact of Mary’s thoughts to her physical state is not made explicit until the final chapter of the book (In the Garden) whereas the connection between India and Mary’s yellow face is made on the very first page of the book.

Because of these colonialist and racist undertones, I initially assumed that the notions about Mary’s yellow face could possibly have been modified in the translations. I thus took a closer look at them. Overall, references to Mary’s yellow face were not modified, apart from two occasions in Emilia Numminen’s (TT3) translation, which are illustrated next. The following passage is from the first chapter in which Mary is introduced and described to the reader. Mary is said to be yellow and thin and sick.

ST (5): She had a little thin face and a little thin body, thin light hair and a sour expression. Her hair was yellow, and her face was yellow because she had been born in India and had always been ill in one way or another. Her father had held a position under the English Government and had always been busy and ill himself,

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and her mother had been a great beauty who cared only to go to parties and amuse herself with gay people (p.7).

TT1 (6): Hänen kasvonsa olivat pienet ja kapeat, vartalo hintelä ja hiekan värinen tukkakin perin ohut. Kasvot olivat yrmeän näköiset ja väriltään kellertävät, sillä hän oli syntynyt Intiassa ja sairastellut milloin mitäkin tautia. Maryn isä oli toiminut virkamiehenä Intiassa, ja hän oli aina ollut kiireissään tai sairaana hänkin. Äiti taas oli ollut kaunotar, joka ei harrastanut juuri muuta kuin kutsuja ja iloista seuraelämää (s. 5).

[Her face was little and narrow, the body skinny and the sand-colored hair was very thin. Her face was sour and yellowish in color because she had been born in India and had been ill of a disease or another. Mary’s father had worked as an official in India and he had always been busy and ill as well. Mother had been a beauty who did not engage in anything else than parties and a merry social life]

TT2 (7): Hänen hipiänsä oli yhtä kellertävä kuin hänen hiuksensakin, sillä hän oli syntynyt Intiassa ja sairastellut koko ikänsä. Hänen isänsä oli ollut Englannin val-tion virkamies, joka oli ollut kiireinen jatkuvasti ja kipeänä yhtä usein kuin hänkin, ja hänen äitinsä oli ollut hyvin kaunis nainen, joka oli ollut kiinnostunut ainoastaan juhlista ja huvittelusta hilpeässä seurassa (p. 7).

[Her complexion was as yellowy as her hair because she had been born in India and had been ill all her life. Her father had been an English civil servant who had been constantly busy and sick as often as she had been, and her mother had been a very beautiful woman, who had been interested only in parties and enjoyment in a cheerful company]

TT3 (8): Hänellä oli ohuet keltaiset hiukset, ja hänen kasvonsakin kellersivät, koska hän oli koko ikänsä sairastellut milloin mistäkin syystä. Mary oli syntynyt Intiassa, missä hänen isänsä oli ollut töissä Englannin hallituksen komentamana. Isä oli aina ollut kiireinen ja usein itsekin sairas. Maryn äiti oli puolestaan ollut oikea kaunotar, jota kiinnostivat vain juhlat ja huvittelu (p. 7).

[She had a thin, yellow hair and her face was also yellowish because all her life she had been ill for a reason or another. Mary had been born in India, where

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her father had worked on a mission by the English Government. The father had always been busy and often sick himself. Mary’s mother had been a real beauty who was only interested in parties and merrymaking.]

The formulation of the source text allows the interpretation that being yellow and ill are results of being an Indian. Yellowness and its negative medical and cultural implications are linked to India. Toini Swan (TT1) and Sari Karhulahti (TT2) have retained this link made in the source text, in which it is stated that Mary’s face was yellow because she had been born in India and that she had always been ill in one way or another. Emilia Numminen’s (TT3) translation does not contain a similar implication as the text is modified so that the information regarding Mary’s birth in India has been transferred to the following sentence: … ja hänen kasvonsakin keller-sivät, koska hän oli koko ikänsä sairastellut milloin mistäkin syystä. Mary oli syntynyt Intiassa.

Thus, the link between Mary’s appearance and illness to her origin in India has been broken in Emilia Numminen’s (TT3) translation.

The reference to a yellow face also allows an interpretation that is connected to the medical discourse of its time. Therefore, yellowness represents both the medical and racist discourse. In the final chapter of the book (In the Garden), the effect of Mary’s thoughts and attitude to her health and appearance, including her skin color, is made explicit. According to Smith (2018), connecting positive thinking to physical health represents the new discovery of its time. Kokkonen, (2015:72), on the other hand, claims that this theme reflects the thoughts of the movement Christian Science, which emphasized the mental aspects in recovering from a physical illness. The following passage from the final chapter illustrates Mary’s transformation:

ST (9): So long as Mistress Mary’s mind was full of disagreeable thoughts about her dislikes and sour opinions of people and her determination not to be pleased by or interested in anything, she was a yellow-faced, sickly, bored, and wretched child.

Circumstances, however, were very kind to her, though she was not at all aware of it. … there was no room left for the disagreeable thoughts which affected her liver and her digestion and made her yellow and tired. (p. 209).

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TT1 (10): Niin kauan kuin Maryn mieli oli täynnä pelkkää happamuutta ja kiuk-kuisia ajatuksia ihmisistä, niin kauan kuin hän ei ollut mistään huvittunut eikä pitä-nyt mistään, niin kauan hän oli keltanaamainen, sairaalloinen, kärttyisä ja onneton lapsi. Mutta olosuhteet olivat hyvin suopeat hänelle, vaikka hän ei itse sitä tiennyt.

… ettei siinä enää ollut sijaa nyrpeille ajatuksille, jotka vaikuttivat haitallisesti hä-nen maksaansa ja ruoansulatukseensa tehden hänet keltaiseksi ja haluttomaksi. (p.

205)

[So long as Mary’s mind was full of sourness and angry thoughts about people, so long as she was not amused about anything and did not like anything, she was a yellow-faced, ill, irritable, and an unhappy child. But the circumstances were agreeable to her even if she did not know it herself. … there was no room for sour thoughts that have a harmful impact on her liver and digestion making her yellow and unwilling.]

TT2 (11): Silloin kun Mary-neiti ajatteli vielä pahaa sekä kaikista asioista että kai-kista ihmisistä eikä halunnut pitää eikä kiinnostua mistään, hän oli keltaihoinen, sairaalloinen, pitkästynyt ja onneton. Olosuhteet kuitenkin suosivat häntä, vaikka hänellä ei ollut siitä aavistustakaan. … hänen päähänsä ei enää mahtunut ikäviä ajatuksia, jotka vaikuttivat hänen maksaansa ja ruoansulatukseensa ja tekivät hä-nestä väsyneen ja keltaihoisen. (p. 221)

[When Miss Mary was still thinking bad about all things and all people and did not want to like or be interested in anything, she was yellow-skinned, sickly, bored and unhappy. The circumstances favored her, even though she had no idea about it. … there was no place in her head for unpleasant thoughts that affected her liver and digestion and made her tired and yellow-skinned]

TT3 (12): Niin kauan kun pikkuneiti Mary ajatteli pelkästään pahansisuisia ajatuk-sia kaikista asioista ja ihmisistä eikä ollut kiinnostunut mistään, hän pysyi sairaal-loisena, tympiintyneenä ja onnettomana olentona. Olosuhteet olivat kuitenkin otol-liset hänelle. … Hänen mielessään ei ollut enää tilaa ikäville ajatuksille, jotka olivat säteilleet hänen sisuskaluihinsa asti ja tehneet hänestä kellertävän ja väsyneen. (p.

265)

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[So long as little miss Mary only had vicious thoughts about all things and was not interested in anything, she remained a sickly, bored and an unhappy crea-ture. The circumstances were however agreeable to her. … there was no room in her mind for unpleasant thoughts that had radiated to her innards and made her yellowish and tired.]

When Mary is described as a yellow-faced, sickly, bored, and wretched child in the passage above, each translator has translated the expression yellow-faced slightly differently. Both Toini Swan (TT1) and Sari Karhulahti (TT2) retain the reference to yellowness. Swan (TT1) has translated it as keltanaamainen (yellow-faced) while Karhulahti (TT2) has used the expres-sion keltaihoinen (yellow-skinned), which is a slightly more general expresexpres-sion as it refers to skin, not face in particular. Emilia Numminen (TT3) has, however, omitted the reference to yellow face in the first part of the passage. Mary is described only with the other translated adjectives, which are in essive case and function as subject predicative: hän pysyi sairaal-loisena, tympiintyneenä ja onnettomana olentona.

In the second part, Numminen (TT3) has retained the reference to Mary’s skin color, as yellow has been translated as kellertävä (yellowish). Similarly, Karhulahti (TT2) and Swan (TT1) have kept the reference to yellowness. Karhulahti has translated the expression, again as keltaihosen whereas Swan has translated it as keltaiseksi.

Toini Swan (TT1) and Sari Karhulahti (TT2) have both retained the reference to liver and digestion, whereas Emilia Numminen’s (TT3) translation has a more general term referring to innards, sisuskaluihinsa (plural, illative case, possessive suffix). The last sentences of the passage raise questions about correct information in children’s fiction. From a current perspective, the idea that Mary’s thoughts strongly affect her digestive system in a way that it makes her yellow and that a change in attitude helps her become healthy, calls for a more met-aphorical rather than literal interpretation. However, if this reflects the popular medical knowledge of the time when the initial version was written, it raises further questions about how translation of fiction deals with information that is dated and possibly even false. This is linked to the question of what the main goal of fiction is, and how it reflects its own time and what kind of facts are expected to be accurate in fiction.

73 6.1.3 The translation of the expression natives

In The Secret Garden, the Indian people depicted worked as servants in Mary’s family, which mirrors the larger context of imperialism and the British empire. The way Indian people are depicted and treated in the story reflects colonialism, but also underlines Mary’s mean and self-centered character, since it is Mary who is indifferent and violent toward the Indian servants.

According to Kutzer (2000: 58), Mary has in India ruled with fear and without hesitating to slap the local servants. However, her racial authority diminishes in England, which as Kutzer (2000:

58) further argues, is exemplified by the way Mary contemplates about slapping Martha, the Yorkshire maid. Mary thinks that if she slapped her, Martha might slap her back. Next, I will discuss how the expressions that are used to describe Indian people are translated.

Native and its plural form natives are recurring expressions in the novel, and they are often used as a noun to refer to Indian people and occasionally as adjective modifier (native servant). The expressions can in this context be considered derogatory, since they contain de-meaning connotations given by the colonizers to the people in India, and they mirror the power relations between the colonizer and the colonized. According to the definition by Oxford Eng-lish Dictionary (1 June 2018), the expression native is dated and offensive, and it refers to “a non-white original inhabitant of a place, as regarded by European colonists or travellers".

Toini Swan (TT1) has systematically translated the expression native as alkuasu-kas, (native, indigenous) or intialainen alkuasukas (an Indian native). The expression native servants, in its turn is translated as alkuasukaspalvelijat (native servants). On one occasion, native servants is translated as alkuasukkaat (the plural from of alkuasukas), so that the word servant is not translated. It is possible that the Finnish retranslations reflect changes in the con-notations of the word alkuasukas which refers to native or indigenous people, since neither Karhulahti (TT2) nor Numminen (TT3) has used it as a translation for native. According to Kielitoimiston sanakirja (9 February 2019), the expression alkuasukas is dated and it refers to a member of an indigenous people of an area. Thus, in this definition there is no mention of the word being offensive.

Emilia Numminen (TT3) has translated the expression native as intialainen (In-dian), whereas native servant is translated as palvelija (servant) or intialainen palvelija (an Indian servant). Native is once translated as intialainen palvelija (2008: 92), when it is implied in the source text that the individual who is talked about is a servant. Similarly, Sari Karhulahti (TT2) has translated that particular expression for native as intialainen palvelija. Otherwise,

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Sari Karhulahti (TT2) has translated native as intialainen (Indian), and native servant as in-tialainen palvelija (an Indian servant) expect for once, when the expression has been translated it as intialainen palkollinen (Indian hireling).

The translation of the word native is illustrated in the following passage. This passage describes how the head gardener Ben Weatherstaff was cross when he met Mary for the first time:

ST (13): He did not know that when she first saw him she spoke to him as she would have spoken to a native, and had not known that a cross, sturdy old York-shireman was not accustomed to salaam to his masters and be merely commanded by them to do things. (p. 72)

TT (14): Ensimmäisen kerran Benin tavatessaan hän oli tietämättään puhutellut tätä kuin intialaista alkuasukasta; mitenpä hän olisi ymmärtänyt, ettei vanha, äreä, juro yorkshireläinen ole tottunut kumartelemaan isännilleen tai olemaan heidän komen-neltavissaan. (p. 69)

[When meeting Ben for the first time she had, without realizing it herself, spo-ken to him like to an Indian native. How could she have known that an old, grumpy, sullen Yorkshireman is not accustomed to bow to his masters or to be commanded by them.]

TT2 (15): Ben ei tiennyt, että Mary oli puhunut hänelle heidän ensi tapaamisellaan kuin intialaiselle palvelijalle, koska ei ollut ymmärtänyt, ettei äreä ja juureva york-shireläisukko ole tottunut pokkuroimaan eikä ottamaan vastaan käskyjä. (p. 72)

[Ben did not know that Mary had spoked to him in their first encounter like to an Indian servant because she had not understood that a grumpy and rustic old Yorkshireman is not used to fawning or taking commands]

TT3 (16): Weatherstaff ei tiennyt, että kun Mary ensimmäisen kerran oli puhutellut häntä, Maryn äänensävy oli ollut sama kuin intialaisille palvelijoille puhuttaessa.

Mary puolestaan ei tiennyt, että äreä ja järeä yorkshireläismies ei ollut tottunut ku-martelemaan ja kuuntelemaan komentelua. (p. 92)

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[Weatherstaff did not know that when Mary had spoken to him for the first time, Mary’s tone of voice had been the same with which Indian servants are spoken to. Mary in her turn did not know that a grumpy and rough Yorkshire-man was not used to bowing and taking comYorkshire-mands]

As discussed above, both Emilia Numminen (TT3) and Sari Karhulahti (TT2) have translated native as intialainen palvelija, as the reference to a servant is implied in the context (Num-minen: intialaisille palvelijoille is in the plural in allative case. Karhulahti: intialaiselle palve-lijalle is in the singular allative case).

According to Kielitoimiston sanakirja, the Finnish expression alkuasukas refers to the indigenous inhabitants of a region. The definition does not have additional remarks about it being dated or offensive. Koskinen and Paloposki (2015:227) however ask if alkuasukas is neutral and acceptable and if so, for how long. My analysis suggests that it might not be neutral as it is used by Toini Swan (TT1) but not by Sari Karhulahti (TT2) and Emilia Numminen (TT3), whose translations are much younger than that of Toini Swan’s (TT1). This would fur-ther raise the question whefur-ther the possible negative connotations of the word alkuasukas have been less questioned and more accepted in 1920 when Toini Swan translated the book than in 2006 and 2008. In addition, it must be remembered that the expression alkuasukas is used as a translation for an expression (native, natives) which negatively describes and defines a colo-nized people. Using it in such context could add to its negative connotations.

The results concerning the translation strategies of the expressions natives and native are to some extent, but not entirely, similar than Trupej’s (2012:96–97) results. Accord-ing to Trupej, the racist discourse in Slovenian translation (1948) of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) was toned down by replacing the racist slur with the first name of the character, a personal pronoun or with Slovenian words for slave and black servant.

6.1.4 Explicit racism

In the novel, there are four cases of explicit racism and different strategies have been applied to translating them into Finnish. The first of these instances occur when Mary meets Martha, the maid who works at Misselthwaite. The two almost have an argument because Mary, who has always been dressed by servants does not know how to do it herself. Mary is not happy as

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Martha thinks it is time for her to learn. In the following passage, Mary explains that things are different in India, to which Martha replies that is because people there are black people instead of respectable white people:

ST (17): ‘Eh I can see it’s different,’ she answered almost sympathetically. ‘I dare say it’s because there’s such a lot o’ blacks there instead o’ respectable white peo-ple. When I heard you was comin’ from India I thought you was black too.’ (p.25–

ST (17): ‘Eh I can see it’s different,’ she answered almost sympathetically. ‘I dare say it’s because there’s such a lot o’ blacks there instead o’ respectable white peo-ple. When I heard you was comin’ from India I thought you was black too.’ (p.25–