ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on translation as a process, on the 'how' of translating. The translation norms are derived from the values and beliefs relating to particular cultures, whether they be transnational, national or professional. Translation itself is a culture-bound activity. Etymologically, 'culture' began life, in Europe at least, as referring to cultivation of the soil, which readily lent itself to ideas of cultivation of the mind, the prime ingredient for civilisation. Culture has become a keyword for a number of disciplines in the social sciences replacing society as the general object of enquiry. Hybridity and diversity open up a 'third space', both in terms of culture and in translation. A number of scholars have independently taken up the 'rhizomic' metaphor for culture and translation. Cultural consultants and mediators operate exclusively within the wider understanding of translation. The purpose of a 'freer' translation is to leave the reader in peace, and to facilitate target-text reader understanding and involvement.