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of inter-related, interdependent layers of meaning. The translator
will have to rely on his linguistic skill, his intuition, and his
prior experience of the external world in his rendition of the source
text in the target language.
Tha hermeneutic model is not based on any theory of langauge. The
process of translation is conditioned by the translator's personality
and his existential view of the text. Based on the German existential
hermeneutics, the hermeneutic model allows the translator unbounded
freedom to modify, even reconstruct, the message of the original text.
He does not have to dive deep in order to bring to the surface a
hidden meaning. Nor does he care to eleminate a certain ambiguity. He
strives to establish a dialogue between him and the source text, a
dialogue which helps him create a completely new text in the target
language. Objectivity, even neutrality, is entirely non-existent.
Translation t thus i becomes a purely subjective activity. The translator,
in a premeditated act of aggression and self-assurance, trespasses on
the linguistic and semantic territory of the source text in an
endeavour to create his own text and, thus, assume an artistic status
equal to that of the original text author. Over-pragmatic students and
those lacking in visionary, literary and critical experience often find
this model dull and unattractive.
Hemeneuticists make a rigourous differentiation between text and
work. While the work (oeuvre) is a closed physical object observable
on shelves and conceived in a spatio-temporal perspective, the text
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