On The Multiple Roles Of A Translator In The Process Of Literary Translation

This article classifies the translators’ roles in the literary translation in the following three aspects.Firstly, the translator is an investigator before literary translation. No matter which kind of article it is, the author and the article have their own background information. The translator must be clear about all the background information to make the translation correct.Secondly, the translator has different kinds of roles during the translation:In fact, the translator is a psychoanalyst during the literary translation. The translator needs to know the author and also the article so as to reflect the true ideas of the author. At the same time, the translator is a wordsmith during the literary translation. The first two steps don’t mean the whole work of literary translation. The quite important aspect is the knowledge both of the source language and the target language. What’s more, a good literary translation will influence many people, so the translator should be a critic during the translation. It is because the translator will have personal opinions during the translation. All these opinions will definitely influence the readers.Thirdly, the translator is the editor after the literary translation. The literary translation always keeps space with the times. Translators should edit the translation to satisfy the readers.It is very meaningful to classify the translators’roles into five kinds in the literary translation:investigator, psychoanalyst, wordsmith, literary critic and editor. If the translators can know each role well, it will improve the translation. The examples listed in the thesis based on the author’s translation of the book The Sea Between lend support to the discussion and argumentation above.