últimas corrientes teóricas en los estudios de traducción - Gredos ...

M. CRISTINA SOUSA–MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE WALL SHOULD WE TRUST THE TRANSLATOR AT ALL?
readers. Their ability to understand a given text must not be taken for granted, but it must
not be underestimated either. Marianne Carus, for example, condemns the temptation felt
by some translators to adapt the text excessively with the excuse that their readers will not
otherwise understand it, changing SL cultural references with TL cultural references
removing from the story altogether the foreign feel to it and the story’s foreign
atmosphere, milieu and detail. But on the other hand, she argues that this “foreign feel” to
the story should not be exaggerated either, as it would render the text too difficult for the
reader to understand. So her solution is for the translator to find the “fine line” between
the two methods, and according to her “the ‘excellent’ translator will find it intuitively”
(1980: 177). The greatest difficulty, however, is the subjective nature of this kind of
decision, which renders the whole situation prone to all kinds of disrespect for the SL text
and author, and for the TL reader. Translators, parents, teachers, publishers and young
readers need to be made aware of the fact that many of the stories they read or are read to
did not originate in their country or language and that therefore they may very likely
contain elements which are not familiar to them because other cultures have different
customs. Childhood is the stage in people’s lives when they are at their most absorbing and
their ability to learn is at its peak: why not take advantage of it!
The translator needs to bear in mind the expected level of intellectual development
of the TL reader, his ability to read, his general knowledge, his knowledge of the SL culture
while at the same time not neglecting the text and the author’s intentions. Taking these
aspects into consideration, the translator will make crucial decisions concerning the style of
writing, the level of linguistic and lexical difficulty, the cultural content and cultural
references. He may have to make slight changes by adding complimentary information, but
if so he would have to consider how these differences would affect the story and the TL
reader’s reading experience. Some of these considerations will result in decisions which will
hardly make the translator invisible. The key, however, is for the translator not to be
intrusive (Bell 1997: 47).
The relevance given to readability in the translation of children’s literature is in line
with the tendency to adapt the text for the claimed benefit of the reader, which brings into
discussion the two translation tendencies, coined by Gideon Toury, of adequacy, i.e.
adherence to the SL linguistic and literary norms, and acceptability, i.e. adherence to the TL
linguistic and literary norms. As discussed, when translating for children the translator
favours acceptability over adequacy moving away from the SL domain and closer to the TL
domain. Close adherence to the SL text becomes a secondary issue in favour of producing
a TL text which will be easier for the young and inexperienced TL reader to understand.
But can we truthfully claim that the young reader would not understand a text produced by
a translator who did not favour one of these two translation tendencies over the other? The
strong preference of acceptability over adequacy is resulting in the production of books so
detached from the SL text that they “are often not even conceived of as translations but
more as genuine members, operating like originals, in the target literary system” (Puurtinen
1994: 84).
We cannot deny the importance of making translated literature more accessible to
children in order to seize and develop their interest in reading. This contributes to the
staying power of the child reader and helps him to mature as a reader. However, the
purpose of translating literature is to give the TL readers the opportunity to experience
other cultures and to experience a different way of telling stories. But this purpose is
defeated when the translator changes the text excessively. The TL reader’s contact with the
foreign culture is superficial. An experience that could be different, exotic and out of the
ordinary becomes mundane and without novelty.
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