Translating a Literary Text: Enigma or Enterprise

Abstract

Translation of any text into a second language is recognized as inter-cultural communication. Translated literary text is produced as a result of negotiations among different languages. In this respect, the paper aimed to evaluate major approaches associated with quality assessment of literary translation. The Qualitative approach has been applied to investigate the techniques and linguistic features, associated with the translation of literary text. The study analyzed and assessed the issue of literary translation and has emphasized on the maintenance of text originality during translation. The investigation of techniques and linguistic approach has been assessed by employing theoretical perspective. Different past researches have been analyzed, based on the literary text features to identify the associated factors. The translation of any text is observed as an act of parallel creation, where a translator acts as a bridge across different cultures. A creative literary translator is one, who possesses good language skills to render meaning, style, and feeling to the translated content without disturbing the originality of the text. Therefore, a literary translator is believed to have a significant contribution towards better understanding of diverse cultures. The translated text is termed as a hybrid to some extent on the basis of cultural environment as it involves the transplantation of source text into target language.

Keywords

• Translation
• Literary Text
• Culture
• Language Skills
• Target Language
• Source Language