Reconstruction or collapse of the fantasy world: Translation of the place names in Journey to the West

Nouns are a characteristic feature that distinguishes one culture from another. Onomatology in general –and toponymy in particular– denotes culture and is affected by specific morals, religions, and ways of thinking, typical of a society. Likewise, it also embodies a varied range of extralinguistic information. In Chinese culture, toponomy is used to display an aesthetic symbolism, as well as a wide variety of connotations that are absent from Hispanic culture. Moreover, if we account for the use of different calligraphy, the translation of Chinese place nouns into Spanish implies a real challenge, a task that becomes more difficult if we deal with translating more than six-hundred-year-old nouns. Translators not only face problems regarding translating from traditional Mandarin Chinese, but also the challenge of translating a text full of religious concepts with no translation equivalents in our mother tongue. In this article, we analyze the translation of place names in Journey to the West in the two translations available in Spanish. Utilizing a corpus containing the original text and the two complete translations into Spanish, we focus on analyzing the techniques used during the translation process, taking into consideration whether the translators were able to identify and keep the harmony and aesthetics –typical features of the Mandarin Chinese– in the Spanish language.