Vjernost u prevođenju
Faithfulness in translation

Summary/Abstract: The act of translation is realized in the language as a system of signs which is used for communication between different communities. Many phenomena specific to a language are often lost in a translation since faithfulness of a translation to the original text cannot be achieved through imitation but through the transformation of a context into another language. The solution of the problem of faithfulness which is a task of the translation theory is important especially because the very problem is not yet clearly defined. Sometimes it is difficult to say what is more important, the specific or the general in the original text. When the valuation of the specific and the general is considered, there are three kinds of translations: translation in the real sense, assingment and transcription. Since the application of the corresponding procedure is determined by the nature of the interrelations between the specific and the general, which comes out of the nature of communication, the translator should be skilled in combining different kinds of translations, especially because of the fact that the specific and the general are inseparable categories. The notion of faithfulness encompasses many categories: faithfulness to the original language, faithfulness to the target language, faithfulness to the recipient of the translation, faithfulness to the time of the original text, etc. Such a polyvalent faithfulness evades any attempt to be precisely defined and analyzed in its wholeness. Even if all methodological conditions in the translation process were fulfilled, the real faithfulness could not be achieved. Its relative realization can only be measured by its similarity with the original.

• Details
• Contents