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“Metaphoric Displacement”
- a Reliable Guide

in Literary Translation

We have to agree that reading literature, in the realsense of the word, is a very difficult task, for it
presupposes the reader’s ability to see more in a text than
directly catches the eye. The question of reading and
understanding literature can never be divorced from the all-
important problem of literary translation since a translator is
first and foremost a reader. Moreover, it is through translation
that people try to find their way in the enormous sphere of
world literature and use it as a key to studying the nature of
human experience, familiarizing themselves with other
cultures and other world-views, thus identifying the specific
features of their own mentality and psychology. In view of all

this, it is not surprising at all that translation is as old as recorded history and, admittedly,
if it were not for translation, the people of the world would be as helpless as in the time
of the Tower of Babel.

The study of the development of translation theory from its earliest steps up to the
present time reveals a considerable shift in the evaluation of its role and status
transforming it from a kind of stylistic exercise to a philological discipline in its own
right. However, one thing is obvious: the main principle of translation has more or less
remained unchanged, and that consists in the statement that the most accepted and
balanced way of translating, especially when what we deal with is a piece of literature,
is the one that not only conveys the literary message in the best way but also tries to keep
as close to the formal peculiarities of the literary text as possible.

The question concerning the status of translation has been discussed time and again
by leading philologists and answered in different ways. Some theorists, such as Eric
Jacobson, have put forward the idea that translation is a craft, others, like Theodore
Savory have evaluated it as art, but there are still others, such as Horst Frenz, who have
always believed it to be a scientifically grounded process. John Dryden has claimed that
translation is really an art, but it is neither creative, nor imitative. Its place should be
found somewhere in between1.

To be able to evaluate this variety of view-points, we have to draw a distinct line
between functionally different texts. It has been established that the two main functional
styles are the intellective, which is aimed at conveying factological information, and the

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Armenian Folia Anglistika Translation Studies

Seda Gasparyan