A Log Cabin Out of Stone: - Dartmouth College

eaders. A dynamic equivalence would recreate that relationship. In a dynamic
translation, “attention is directed, not so much toward the source message, as toward the
receptor response.” 8 Thus, in order to successfully translate dynamically the primary
consideration is how the readers receive the test. In this approach analysis is a chief
priority for the translator.
Nida’s approach is helpful for me in thinking about what is important in
translating. The dynamic equivalence refers to the dynamics between the reader and the
original text; that is, the relationship that the original reader has with the original words.
That is very important to me in my translations. However, when I say inner dynamics, I
am referring to the dynamics within the poem itself. So the inner dynamics of Horace’s
epode 1 has to do with the ironies involved in the relationship between poet and patron.
The way Horace describes Maecenas and his friendship with Maecenas are very crucial
in bringing out the inner dynamics.
My approach was also influenced by Robinson’s discussion of what he calls
metonymic translation. With metonymic translation, the translator does not abandon the
poem, but identifies an aspect of the poem and finds an available equivalent in the target
language. This is a combination of analysis and translation that illuminates aspects of the
original. A metonymic translation does not attempt to reproduce the entire textual sense
but instead attempts to recreate the poem using different materials. The result, although
markedly different has the same function.
Robinson also touches on the emotional aspect of word choice.
We do feel words, and most typically guide our choice of words when
we speak (and our interpretation of words when others speak)
emotionally, by recourse not to an abstract cognitive system of rules but
8 Nida, "Principles of Correspondence," 14.
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