UNFAITHFUL TRANSLATORS AND TRANSLATION INFIDELITY

Abstract

Understanding a literary work as a whole (in our particular case prose) means understanding not only the language but also the intrinsic elements of the story (theme, plot, characterization, and setting), the symbolism, the metaphors, the author’s style and cultural background. This means that, at the stage of analyzing the text, a translator must take all the aspects above into account. A very small misinterpretation of the work may cause a wrong perception. As a result, the target language (TL) reader will also misinterpret the story. When translating a text, especially a literary work, the translator requires broader background knowledge. S/he cannot depend on the text and the dictionary alone. The cultural background that contributes to the creation of the text must be studied before working on the translation itself. A careless decision in choosing equivalent expressions to be used in the translated text may cause various problems, such as loss, gain and gap of meaning.