Il problema della distanza temporale nella traduzione delle opere letterarie

Abstract

Temporal distance is a key problem in the translation of old literary texts, though still neglected in the theory of translation. The attempt to define and classify this problem is illustrated through examples from contemporary translations of Italian Renaissance texts. There are no corresponding linguistic and stylistic sources in Serbian literature to draw from, and yet an adequate rendering is possible by creating hybrids (archuic lexical and morphosyntactic forms, stylized neologisms) and associations (to originals and translations which are felt as traditional today - no matter when they were written - in the TL literature. Within temporal distance, primary distance - as sensed and created by the author - should be understood and recreated by the translator, whilst secondary distance relates principally to reader understanding and arises from the time lapse between the origina1 and its contemporary recreation. Both distances can be manifested in nine basic types: frequent and absolute archaisms; poetic archaisms; reminiscences; idioms; jargon; cultura1 interference; genre-constrictions; semantic archaisms; and elements of myth and fairy-tale. The author believes that the results of her research could help translators and translation theorists to gain a clearer insight into the many questions that temporal distance poses, as well as to find more possible answers.