Translators' Strategies and Creativity

In their contributions the authors reflect upon Levý’s thinking on translation as a communication process and on Popovič’s insistence on the importance of re-creating a text both at the surface and deep levels. Examples are drawn from literary translation, technical translation, from audio-visual translation and from interpreting, and the authors point out that translators in all domains inevitably come up against linguistic, textual and other constraints, which, if they are to be resolved successfully, call upon a translator’s and interpreter’s strategies and creativity. The authors argue that this is the essence of professional decision-making in translation — according to Levý translation is a decision-making process — and that translation teachers should help students develop an understanding of translation strategies and of the vital role that creativity plays throughout the translation/interpreting process.