Translation, decoding, game – a case study

Abstract

In the course of translation activity, similarly as in the process of decoding its actual result embodied in the target text, significance of various references to the source and target contexts may be observed. On this background, it may be instructive to analyse various instances of better or less convincing adjustment of source texts to the target realities of their reception. The proposed case study is designed to provide the description of the processes of translation and interpretation in terms of specific language games, according to the model presented formerly by Stanisław Barańczak – with certain roughly sketched rules, valid even despite varying degrees of their productive reference to the objects of extralinguistic reality. Different recognition of rules may result in varying translations, as shown in the analysed example.