On «naturalness» of literary translation
Abstract
A major task of translation theory is to discover criteria for a critical assessment of literary translations. These sort of translations can be assessed in terms of their fidelity to the source text and their artistic impression. But assessing the literary qualities of a translation the critic is often faced with intuitive factors which defy objective analysis.
A major requirement to a good translation is that it should be natural or that it should read as an original. Experimental studies have shown that this requirement is seldom met and that, in most of cases, the informants can distinguish translations from original texts. Presumably, they base their judgements on a number of linguistic distinctions which are regarded by the researchers as errors to be corrected, as the result of the translator's inadequate skill or performance.
It is suggested by the author that such distinctions may be objective and unavoidable. A translation is meant to represent the source text and it can fulfill its function only if it is accepted as a special type of text, identifiable and distinct from non-translations. The language of translations should be studied in its own right to distinguish the translator's errors from justifiable distinctions. The naturalness of translation does not mean its absolute identity with original texts. A translation should be natural as translation. It should meet the acceptability criteria which depend on the genre and on the social conventions of the period influencing the choice of the translator's strategy.
