Literary Translation Flashcards

What is the translator's most significant creative challenge when rendering humor?

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.

What is a 'retranslation' in literary contexts?

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.

Why is 'voice' particularly important in literary translation?

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.

What does a literary translator typically do when a source text contains a culturally specific untranslatable term?

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.

What is the term for a translation that conveys the overall meaning without being word-for-word faithful?

Answer: Free translation

A free translation prioritizes conveying the spirit and meaning of the source text over strict word-for-word correspondence.

Which of the following best describes the 'invisibility' of the translator as discussed by Lawrence Venuti?

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.