Translation Literary Translation 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is the translator's most significant creative challenge when rendering humor?
- Finding the shortest equivalent phrase
- Recreating the comedic effect when jokes depend on source-language wordplay (Correct answer)
- Translating slapstick descriptions accurately
- Preserving the exact length of comic dialogue
Correct answer: Recreating the comedic effect when jokes depend on source-language wordplay
Humor often relies on puns, cultural references, or linguistic ambiguity that may not transfer directly, requiring creative re-invention.
Question 2: What is a 'retranslation' in literary contexts?
- Translating back from the target language to the source
- A new translation of a text that already has one or more existing translations (Correct answer)
- Correcting errors in a previously published translation
- Translating an abridged version of a longer work
Correct answer: A new translation of a text that already has one or more existing translations
Retranslation is the act of producing a new translation of a literary work that already exists in the target language.
Question 3: Why is 'voice' particularly important in literary translation?
- Publishers require translators to read aloud during recording sessions
- Capturing the author's distinctive narrative voice makes the translation feel authentic (Correct answer)
- Voice determines the reading level of the translated text
- Voice dictates how many footnotes must be included
Correct answer: Capturing the author's distinctive narrative voice makes the translation feel authentic
An author's voice—tone, rhythm, diction—is central to their literary identity and must be conveyed in the translation for authenticity.
Question 4: What does a literary translator typically do when a source text contains a culturally specific untranslatable term?
- Delete the term entirely
- Use a combination of borrowing, calque, or explanatory translation with footnotes if necessary (Correct answer)
- Replace it with a generic English word
- Return the text to the author for revision
Correct answer: Use a combination of borrowing, calque, or explanatory translation with footnotes if necessary
When facing culturally specific terms, translators may borrow the word, coin an equivalent, or add a note to preserve cultural meaning.
Question 5: What is the term for a translation that conveys the overall meaning without being word-for-word faithful?
- Interlinear translation
- Literal translation
- Free translation (Correct answer)
- Back translation
Correct answer: Free translation
A free translation prioritizes conveying the spirit and meaning of the source text over strict word-for-word correspondence.
Question 6: Which of the following best describes the 'invisibility' of the translator as discussed by Lawrence Venuti?
- Translators are not credited on book covers
- A fluent, domesticated translation creates the illusion that the text was originally written in the target language (Correct answer)
- Translators work anonymously in publishing houses
- Machine translation makes human translators invisible in the market
Correct answer: A fluent, domesticated translation creates the illusion that the text was originally written in the target language
Venuti argues that a fluent, domesticated style makes the translator's labor invisible by erasing the strangeness of the foreign text.
Translation Literary Translation 2
What is the translator's most significant creative challenge when rendering humor?