Translation as a notion and subject. Interpretation

Translation as a term and notion is of polysemantic nature. The first common and most general meaning is associated with the action or process of rendering the content (meaning) of a source language word (SL), word-group, sentence or passage in the target language (TL) or with the result of the process of rendering. “Translation” is also used to denote the subject taught or studied (I have to pass translation tomorrow) or the title of the theoretical work on the subject (I bought Translation by Ivanenko).

No less ambiguous is also the term “ interpretation ” which is synonymous to “translation” and is used to denote the way of presenting the idea of the work in translation orally. The thing is that “interpretation”, unlike “translation”, admits some freedom of the translator in his treatment of the matter. Hence, the existence of free versification (переспіви) and free adaptation (перелицювання, вільна переробка) which are rightly treated as new creations. The famous free interpretations of Virgil’s Aeneid in Ukrainian by I. Kotlyarevskyi, Shakespearean masterpieces, Byronean writings are interpreted according to our national literary tradition.

There are some other terms in the theory of translation. These terms are: faithful translation, faithfulness of translation, equivalent translation/interpretation, accurate translation, free interpretation/ translation, free adaptation, translation at sight, off- hand translation, rough translation, rehash, etc. Terms and notions “faithful translation” and “equivalent translation” are synonymous if not identical by their general meaning thought not without some difference between them. The term “ faithful translation ” (адекватний, вірний) is used to denote the highest degree of rendering the denotative or connotative meanings of words, the content, the expressiveness, the pragmatic intention of works of the SL to the TL. The term “ equivalent translation ”- the same, but also includes the necessity of quantitative and qualitative representation of all elements, parts of the SL units in the TL.