Translating Oscar Wilde and Liam O’Flaherty

Abstract

Should the translator cater for the needs of the writer or for those of the reader? Should he/she remain as close to every single word of the original text as possible, sacrificing if necessary fluency and clarity; or should she/he interpret the text in a manner that ignores the spirit and foreign nature (i.e., tempo, character, concepts) of the original language as well as the author’s peculiar way of thinking and feeling? Is there a third alternative, a middle way? Is every translation in fact an adaptation? I had to try to answer these questions when translating Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband and Liam O’Flaherty’s The Informer. These are the questions one always faces when engaged in the challenging, often perilous, ever fascinating and enriching experience of translation.