Attempt to anthologize prefaces of Romanian translations of the 19th century

Abstract

Insufficiently exploited in the history and historiography of Romanian translation, the prefatory discourse accompanying 19th century Romanian translations show the eclecticism of the approaches of Romanian translators in a period of transition that was troubled on all levels. Due to a corpus of a few dozen paratexts, we have traced out guidelines for the perception of the translating activity of the time, due to these testimonies of translators occasional or consecrated,, whose merit is to have been pioneers and to have made the Romanian readership discover the cultural productions from abroad. Despite of the lapses or misuses in the translations, the emphasis has been on the elements proving that the translated text does not represent a literal translation, but the translator's creation, the result of an elaborate, complex interpretative act (sometimes worthy of rivaling the complexity of the original itself). The clearly targeted orientation of the majority of the transpositions of foreign texts into Romanian, the interventions that are too sharp in relation to the source text where the adaptation goes from ethnocentrism to massive restructuring, both on the level of the signified and the signifier, allow us to classify them as derivatives of the translation itself. This article does not propose to make favorable or denigrating assessments of the performance of the translators on whom we have focused, but to highlight the existence of these mini-treaties of translation where translators verbalize, if not conceptualize, the difficulties of translating into a language that was by no means formed, completed and matured. However, the translator's prefatory discourse does not authorize criticism of his creation, which is subject to noble commitments such as nationalist awakening, the achievement of language, the development and organization of education. The self-reflexive inclination identified in the translator's metadiscourse and the desire to justify his translating options help us to trace the origins of translation criticism in Romania. Thus, from their theoretical and ideological content, some of the preface-manifests show that the translations of the 19th century are the result of hard work, a fierce determination and admirable ambitions to open up paths and to pave the way for others who will follow their example to do better.