TRADUCĂTORII ROMÂNI ÎN ŢARA MINUNILOR
WHY IS A RAVEN LIKE A WRITING DESK?’ THE ROMANIAN TRANSLATORS IN WONDERLAND

Summary/Abstract: The present study was inspired, quite unusually, not by a Romanian ‘Alice’ translation, but by a radio play based on this eternally fascinating story. Hence, we have examined the three most reputed Romanian translations of Carroll's masterpiece, in order to find the methods most frequently used for rendering the English pun, according to Delabastita’s rules. We have gladly concluded that the dominating methods were “a” (pun to pun), “f” (non-pun to pun) and “g” (zero to pun). Method “b” (pun to non-pun), that is abandoning the pun, was rarely approached, whereas “h”, such as footnotes that seal the translator’s defeat, according to Umberto Eco, were scarcely used. A special mention goes to the radio play translator, who, while omitting a few episodes and characters – more difficult to enjoy without a text or drawings – creates charming new puns.

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