ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with the assumption that the expectations of childhood vary from time to time and from one culture to another. Therefore, when a children’s book gets translated from one language to another, from one culture to another, it amounts to translation and transportation of a whole host of notions, values and ideals associated with childhood from one culture to another. It attempts to examine the implications of translations of children’s literature from English to Telugu during colonial and postcolonial period (1950–2000) to substantiate the claim that the nature of translation of children’s literature is largely determined by the position of children’s literature within the literary and cultural polysystem. It analyses the factors – social, cultural, political and literary – that motivated these translations and assesses the impact they have had on the child readers. It also discusses the method of translation wherein the translators permitted themselves great liberties; they manipulated the text in various ways changing, abridging and adapting it to the target language.
