A Survey of Translation Theory

The title of my research work is a metaphor that mirrors the quirky relationship between the author of a text and the translator, who becomes a mediator between two languages and two cultures; consequently, s/he must understand not only the content of the message, but also the subtleties of meaning, the emotive values of the words and the stylistic features which determine the “flavour” of the text. Additionally, s/he needs to be aware that, as a translator, s/he is the servant of the original author and the more submitted s/he is to her/his master, the greater her/his merits and reward will be. Countless times I had noticed inadequacies in translations, so I could not help but wonder: What is the role of the translator? What do we really read? How many translation mistakes or voluntarily incorrect choices are there in the translated books that we are reading daily? How much freedom is the translator allowed to take while translating? Throughout the current work I tried to present an overview of the most pertinent issues concerning the complex process of translation and of the skills a translator needs to be endowed with in order to transpose the flavour of the original text.