Conclusion

These are challenges that a translator faces in the course of translation. Jirí Levý the Czech translation scholar thought that a translator cannot gloss over difficult terms and take an easy way out. He felt that it was the translator's responsibility to overcome hurdles like these and ensure that the SL text is adequately represented. A translator can be pardoned an awkward usage if s/he uses it to clarify the SL text.

All these debates ultimately agree that the translation can be termed successful if it communicates the SL message to the reader. If we can read and understand the instruction in a manual for an equipment made in Japan, then it means that the translator has successfully passed on the SL message to the TL. Similarly if Tolstoy is considered to be a great writer by everybody and not just Russians, obviously the text has been communicated without distortions to the reading public in general. Nida underlines this point when he says “the ultimate purpose of the translation, in terms of its impact upon its intended audience, is a fundamental factor in any evaluation of translations” (Venuti 131).

Assignments

1. How do the purpose  and readership of translation influence the method of translation?
2. Select a text of your choice and translate it for young readers. What are the changes you would make?
   
   

References

Nida, Eugene. “Principles of Correspondence”. The Translation Studies Reader. Ed. Lawrence Venuti. London: Routledge, 2000: 126 – 141.

Reiss, Katharina. “Type, Kind and  Individuality of  Text: Decision making in Translation” .The Translation Studies Reader. Ed. Lawrence Venuti. London: Routledge, 2000: 160 – 171.

Vermeer, Hans J. “Skopos and Commission in Translational Action”. The Translation Studies Reader. Ed. Lawrence Venuti. London: Routledge, 2000: 213 – 221.