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imbalance between form and content occur, the translation would be
seriously defective.
Nida (1960, p19) postulates equivalence from a different
perspective. He maintains that equivalence solely lies in "producing
into the receptor language the closest natural equivalent to the
message of the SL, first in meaning and secondly in style". Nida
suggests that equivalence in translation can be achieved only at the
semantic and stylistic levels in order to produce in the receptor
language, as he has already affirmed, the closest natural equivalent to
the source message. Later, he states that:
"No two languages are identical either in meaning given to
corresponding symbols or in the ways in which such symbols are
arranged in phrases and sentences." (1964, p156)
This places a heavy burden on the translator who, striving to achieve
complete equivalence, ends up with a version as close as possible but
not identical to the original. And this, notwithstanding, is the
genuine mark of appropriate translating. A translated text is not an
imitation of the original; it is an individual creation in its own
right. Like the original, the translated version is a sequence of
lexical structures organized according to a particular linguistic
patterning (format) along certain conventions and literary norms,
conveying a thought that is determined by historical, social, and
cultural contexts which are specific to a particular speech community.
The translator comes in to bridge the cultural gap between the SL and
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