Aspectele Principale ÎN Traducerea Literaturii Pentru Copii

UNIVERSITATEA ''BABEȘ-BOLYAI'' CLUJ-NAPOCA

FACULTATEA DE LITERE

DEPARTAMENTUL DE LIMBI MODERNE APLICATE

LUCRARE DE LICENȚĂ

ASPECTELE PRINCIPALE ÎN TRADUCEREA

LITERATURII PENTRU COPII

Absolvent:

Crina-Ancuța ZBÂNCA

Coordonator științific:

Lector univ. dr. Liana MUTHU

CLUJ-NAPOCA

2016

UNIVERSITATEA ''BABEȘ-BOLYAI'' CLUJ-NAPOCA

FACULTATEA DE LITERE

DEPARTAMENTUL DE LIMBI MODERNE APLICATE

MAIN ASPECTS IN TRANSLATING

CHILDREN'S LITERATURE

Absolvent:

Crina-Ancuța ZBÂNCA

Coordonator științific:

Lector univ. dr. Liana MUTHU

CLUJ-NAPOCA

2016

Introduction

Translation Studies of children's literature represents a vast field of research which requires a systematic analysis of the objectives, characteristics, rules, principles, strategies, theories, models and a relevant case study. The purpose of this paper is to overcome the limits of the disparate studies on children's literature and to sustain its status of distinct academic discipline. For this purpose, I used a monographic presentation of the most important issues, challenges and difficulties in translating children's literature. This coincides with another purpose, namely creating a sound basis of knowledge for anyone wishing to conduct further work in this field. It is also the intention of this paper to create general interest in the subject and to draw the attention of non-experts, such as parents, to the problems associated with the translation of children's literature.

Although my intention is to provide general directions for research that might prove useful for a translator in his work, I consider that the examples from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll and from its translations into Romanian language, are relevant in arguing the ideas that I want to highlight.

The scientific approach confirms the existence of major differences between the two languages and cultures, namely Romanian language and culture as compared to English language and culture. In this regard, the thesis highlights different approaches of the translation of children's literature in Romania in contrast with what happens in England or the United States. From my point of view, both literary productions for children, those from dominant and those from dominated languages and cultures, should have the opportunity to come into universality.

The first chapter, The fundaments of translating literature for children, describes the subject of children's literature in general. It also seeks to clarify the most important aspects that give to translation of children's literature the status of ''new academic discipline''. When translating literature for children, translators have some main objectives, which will help them to achieve a successful translation. They also have to respect some norms, in order to make the text easier to understand for children. When a translator assumes that a certain paragraph will not be understood by a child, he is allowed to make changes or deletions, to adjust it to the appropriate comprehension level. When speaking about methods of translating literature for children, Amparo Hurtado Albir's classification of methods of translation, seems useful to the translator, when transferring the text from source language to target language.

The second chapter, Equivalence – an important issue in translating literature for children, presents an extensive analysis of the concept of equivalence from different points of view, highlighting its influence on translations of literary texts for children. The first section of the chapter is devoted to a review of perspectives on the concept of equivalence and equivalence relations. The nature of equivalence is examined in detail, and so is the division between the equivalence understood as an empirical concept and the equivalence understood as a theoretical concept, leading to a clear preference for the first interpretation. In addition, my intention is to demonstrate that translating for children means keeping the most important aspects from the original text and manipulating text with great freedom, in order to fulfil readers' expectations.

Similarly, the third chapter named Translating cultural references in children's books, aims to identify specific cultural items and their translations into target language. In translating literature for children, the translator is aware that one of the objectives of translation is to create a multicultural reader, who may have a broader perspective on different cultures of the world. In this respect, cultural references represent a category of cultural items, used sometimes in order to make an allusion or an ironic comment. When speaking about cultural categories, Newmark (1988: 95 – 102) places ''foreign cultural words'' in some categories. These ''foreign cultural words'' can be translated either by finding an equivalent in the target language, or by explaining it to footnotes. My intention is to prove that the false issue of untranslatability of such terms is actually caused by a lack of knowledge about the techniques and strategies used in their translation into target language.

The fourth chapter, entitled Text – illustration relationship in children's books shows the importance of pictures in the books that are written for a specific category of readers, namely for children. Picture books are profusely illustrated books in which the illustrations are, to varying degrees, essential to the enjoyment and understanding of the story. Younger children are mostly attracted to the colourful pictures depicted in the books appropriate for them. Some of the books allocated to them contain no words and there are just a series of continuous pictures which they interpret for themselves or their parents may do the job. In picture books, some parts of the theme of the story is conveyed through the pictures, and words are kept silent in this respect.

Finally, in chapter five a case study will be presented, illustrating some of the translation problems discussed in Chapters 2, 3 and 4 of this graduation paper. In the beginning, some interesting aspects about the book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll will be presented. The original illustrations of the book, made by John Tenniel, will be analyzed and some mistakes in the illustrations will be discussed. A comparison between two Romanian translations will be made, that of Eugen B. Marian (1998) and that of Mirella Acsente (2007) of the story Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. The aspects that I will bring into discussion and I will compare, are puns, idioms, quotes and translation mistakes. Other aspects that will be compared are the illustrations from the two translations. Mirella Acsente's translation keeps the original illustrations of John Tenniel, meanwhile the translation of Eugen B. Marian adopts the illustrations of Mabel Lucie Atwell.

1. The fundaments of translating literature for children

This first chapter, suggestively entitled The fundaments of translating literature for children, treats the most important aspects that define the translation of children's literature as a new academic object. Revolving around children, who are the direct beneficiaries of the whole translation process, the translation of children's literature explores the translation impact on the future readers.

The variety and the asymmetry, that develop an interesting relationship between translators and readers, the multiplicity of the identities and the compliance with a set of rules that are functional in contemporary society, are some of the key elements of translating literature for children. The translators of children's literature are aware of systemic constraints, adapting translation to external stringent and internal development. In order to achieve this, they use a variety of translation strategies, from the syntactic ones to the pragmatic ones.

Children's literature is composed of the literary works accessible to small readers. Among its genres there are included the fairy tales, poems, legends, stories and adventure novels. This literary genre is distinguished by an apparent simplicity, but the complexity becomes obvious when the translator, who is an adult, faces problems related to tone, register and equivalence. For example ,,balaurul'' (fantastic winged animal, having the shape of a snake with many heads) present in the Romanian mythology, can have ''the dragon'' as the equivalent, present in the European, Indonesian and Chinese mythologies.

The translator has to take into account the children's interests, their ability to understand a certain text, that's why he has to be very careful about the choices he makes in terms of translating these types of texts.

1.1. The objectives of translating children's literature

In order to be able to make a successful translation for children, translators have several main objectives described in Rutledge Encyclopaedia of Translation Studies (1998: 362), divided into two categories, namely overall and specific objectives, that they have to carry out to achieve their goals.

The overall objectives of this academic object reefers to the need to provide an academic basis, but also practical landmarks that would help translators who translate for children, to carry out their task in the best possible way. The specific objectives of the process of translating children's literature stipulates that translators have to focus on the following three objectives: primarily on the formation of a multicultural reader, who uses his translations to become familiar with different cultures of the world and has the opportunity to explore new ways of thinking, while learning to accept and to enjoy the international diversity; secondly he has to focus on initiating an intercultural communication from the perspective of different readers from different countries, speaking different languages and having different customs; and finally on promoting intercultural agenda based on cultural exchanges between source and target texts, and recognizing the potential change principles and modification through translation.

Fulfilling the first objective requires, on the one hand, that a child in Romania can become familiar to English folklore, customs and traditions through translation of books like: Folk and Hero Tales (1975) by James MacDougall; British Folk Tales and Legends: A Sampler (1977) by Katharine Briggs; English Fairy Tales (1993) by Joseph Jacobs or Myths and Legends of the British Isles (1999) by Richard Barber. On the other hand, children in Anglophone space should have the opportunity to discover the beauty and richness of Romanian culture. This would be possible if at least the most important Romanian fairy tales, myths and legends should be translated into English. The collections that I consider important include: Basme (1984) by Vladimir Colin; Cerbul fermecat (1985) by Victor Eftimiu; Drumul urieșilor (1986) by Maria Ioniță; Comorile Dunării (1988) by Angela Dumitrescu-Begu; Legende istorice (1989) by Dimitrie Bolintineanu and Povești populare (1989) by Ion Pop Reteganul.

The second objective is envisaged that we can not expect that a translation of a 18th or 19th century text to have the same impact on a child in the 21st century, as it had by the time the text was written. To illustrate this, I consider suitable Charles Dickens' novels, which originally appeared on chapters, in current publication and the writer often changed the action, depending on the reader's preferences. The novel Oliver Twist (1838) is one such case and it is known that at the date publication of the novel, the writer wanted to draw adult reader's attention to the society shortcomings of those times: the exploitation of children who were forced to work in difficult conditions at an early age and recruitment of the organized gangs of thieves and criminals. The effects of industrialization on the nineteenth-century England were pressing at the moment when Dickens wrote his novel, but the realities of those times are not anymore familiar to readers of Theodora or Profira Sadoveanu's Romanian translation in 1991 or even less to the readers of the Romanian translation of Mary Petrescu, Luminița Cocârț and Sorina Chiper made in 2009. The novel longevity and the appreciation it enjoys today is due to themes, motifs, characters and situations that have a universal character and to the translators' ability to adapt to contemporary children's expectations, explaining, when necessary, some historical references.

Promoting an intercultural agenda is another major objective of translating literature for children and to facilitate the intercultural, translators handle sometimes the source text in a positive way by inserting further explanation to capture the attention of future readers, and to be able to relate to those readers of target language and culture, that need information that the authors of source text consider to be necessary.

If they want to achieve their goals, translators of literature for children will take into account that there are some major features that can be attributed to this type of translation: asymmetry, variety, translator-reader relationship, the multiplicity of identities and location.

Firstly, the translation of children's literature develops an asymmetric relationship between children and adults, because adult influence is an important factor in the production and distribution of children's literary translation. Critics, theorists and members of the literary awards committee, translators themselves, publishers, parents or officials of the Ministry of Education exert an overwhelming influence on permanent books to be translated for children. If they grant a larger loan to children and to their ability to understand a particular text, adults should be able to overcome a number of obstacles concerning the asymmetry that appears between source and target language and the asymmetric position of the translation of children's literature in the Anglo-American space, compared to the situation in eastern countries.

Secondly, the concept of variety affects the translation of children's books from different angles: a wide range of literary genres and species form the heterogeneous category of children's literature; readers have extremely diverse preferences according to age group to which they belong, the understanding level and socio-cultural affiliation and not least, many theories, models, concepts, rules, principles and strategies can be applied to this area

Thirdly, contemporary society is based on the marketing mechanisms, therefore translating children's literature is mainly concerned with satisfying the demands inherent in a relationship translator-reader, or customer-supplier, with children or adolescents as consumers and publishers as suppliers of this type of literature. The translator should occupy a privileged position in the traditional chain's links between consumers and suppliers, but usually this does not happen because of a low status, too strict deadlines and a low level of financial remuneration.

Moreover, the translators who translate for children contribute to the protection and promotion of diverse languages and cultures, in other words to the defence of multiplicity of identities in a world of globalization. The process of translating children's literature involves a real game of identities at linguistic, national, cultural, personal or psychological level.

Finally, location and location of the reverse are terms used to explain the movement of languages from central to peripheral languages and vice versa. Translators of children's literature should use partial localization, which would indicate both adaptation and conservation. Therefore, if these objectives are always present in the mind of the translators who translate literature for children while they perform their task, the result will be worthy appreciated.

1.2. Methods of translating literature for children

In translating a certain text, the translator must take into account that the work he/she performs is closely related to the translated text, but also with the recipient, having a specific purpose. A kind of text whose translation depends on a large extent on its recipient, is represented by the text belonging to children's literature. The translator must consider children's interests and their ability to understand a text, therefore an important step in the realization of translation is the choice of an appropriate translation method.

Amparo Hurtado Albir (2001) is the one who provides a classification of translation methods, given that the method that the translator will use in the transfer of the source language to target language, strictly depends on translation purpose. Amparo Hurtado Albir (2001: 25) says that: ''Methods are the procedures used by the translator to solve problems that emerge when carrying out the translation process with a particular objective in mind.'' Thus, the above-mentioned author classifies the methods of translation as follows: interpretive- communicative method, literal method, free method and philological method. Each method requires a different approach to the text to be translated: interpretive-communicative method involves tracking the translation meaning, literal aims transposing linguistics, and the last two methods use adaptation and modification of semiotic or communicative categories (free method), respectively a scholarly and critical translation (philological method).

Among the methods listed above, the most suitable for the translation of children's literature are interpretative-communicative method and free method. The interpretive- communicative method's aim is to translate the meaning, transposing the ideas from the source languages text into the target language, in the nearest way. It is advisable to use this method when the translated text belonged to children's literature before being translated. For example, translating The White Moor's Story (1877) in English, the translator will not adapt the tale form, but he will only try to solve various problems related to tone and equivalents. Characters' names can be problematic because they have a strong symbolic meaning: the appearance of The Bald Man ( the Romanian version: Spânul) is relevant to his character traits (evil, cunning, meanness). To transpose the expressive effect, the translator can choose a determinant as, for example, "bad", "The Bad Bald Man". In this way an alliteration is obtained, ("Bad Bald") which increases the stylistic effect produced on the target audience.

Free translation method involves a high degree of adaptation to the target language, a change in the form of text. This method is suitable for translations of texts that originally do not belong to children's literature. For example, Victor Hugo's masterpiece, Les Miserables (1862) was translated in version addressed to children – Cosette and Gavroche. The complexity of the original text requires an adaptation, debated themes (love, sacrifice, human degradation, historical and social changes), numerous plans and narrative descriptions are nearly impossible to understand by children. In order to solve this problem, there are recommended the following techniques of translation: suppression and adaptation.

Regarding suppression, the translator must extract only the items that are interesting to the target audience: the children-characters Gavroche and Cosette and their adventures, suppressing passages that will not be interesting for the reader, as for example, the following passage: "Le palais épiscopal de Digne était un vaste et bel hôtel bâti en pierre au commencement du siècle dernier par monsegnieur Henri Puget […]1712''. Its suppression is required because the details – names, distinctions, years – are not relevant for children, making the text difficult to understand. The English translation of this book doesn't keep the items that are not interesting for children, it being adapted to children's capacity to understand the text.

Regarding adaptation, the translator has to modify the text so as to convey the same idea, but to be easier to understand by the target audience. Another way through which children's texts can be adapted is by transforming them in comics. In this case, the translator must compress text, to simplify it, extracting only the relevant passages. For example, in an online version of The White Moor's Story translated into English, the translator renders various ideas using illustrations. The translator of the story Povestea lui Harap-Alb by Ion Creangă (1877), doesn't have to translate the whole next passage, because the images are eloquent, rendering the terror of the middle son, also being attractive to children: ,,Atunci feciorul cel mijlociu, pregătindu-și cele trebuitoare și primind și el carte din mâna tată-său către împăratul, își ia ziua bună de la frați, și a doua zi pornește și el. Și merge, și merge, până se înnoptează bine. Și când prin dreptul podului, numai iaca și ursul: mor! mor! mor! Calul fiului de crai începe atunci a forăi, a sări în două picioare și a da înapoi.''

Therefore, we find that children's translations are complex, problematic and difficult to achieve. Their complexity lies in how the translator has to adapt not only the tone, but sometimes, especially in the case of tales, cultural references, ideas and concepts that are untranslatable. However, the form may suffer when trying to adapt the text according to the text receiver.

1.3. Translating literature for children: transfer or interpretation?

This section covers certain behaviour patterns of children's literature. As well as translating for adults, translating for children involves an invisible translator, a person who has the mission to transpose the author' s words in the target language, in a simple, but at the same time in a complex manner, in order to ease the text reading and comprehension by children. We do not think of translators as human beings with their own child images. So translators cannot highlight their own ideologies, namely their child images.

The image of ''child'' is a very complex aspect. On the one hand it is something unique, based on each individual memory and childhood, and on the other hand it is something collectivised in all society. As well as the authors who write for children, the translators who translate for children have a child image that they are aiming their work. More than that, one question clearly appears when we translate for children: For whom? We translate for the benefit of the future readers, the children who will interpret the stories in their own ways.

We don't have to simply convey all of the original message and forget the purpose of the whole translation process, namely that the translation must function alongside the illustrations and on the aloud-reader's tongue. We have to give priority to the child as a reader, as someone who actively participates in the reading event, and this can be done only by stressing the importance of ''readability'' of the target-language text.

The reading is the most important aspect in translating for children: first, the reading experience of the translator who writes his translation on the basis of how he experienced the original text; and second the children's reading experiences imagined by the translator, which drives to an imaginary projection, an imaginary dialogue between translator and his readers. The act of translation is seen here as a semiotic concept, so translation is understood as a part of a transfer mechanism, namely the process by which textual models of one system are transferred to another. The final product of the act of translation is the result of the relationship between a source system and a target system, a relationship determined by a scale of semiotic constraints.

1.4. Norms of translating literature for children

To be fully accepted as a distinct academic discipline, the translation of literature for children requires integration of a set of rules that would be effective in the decision-making process. In order to make the text easier to be understood by children, the translator is permitted to manipulate the text in various ways by changing, deleting or adding to it. These translational procedures are permitted only if the translator respects the following essential norms, used in the translation of children's literature: an adjustment of the text, in order to make it appropriate to the child and an adjustment of plot and language to prevailing society's perceptions of the child's ability to read and comprehend.

Other important norms that are functional in the translation of children's literature, detailed by Toury (1995) are: the initial norms -referring to the decision of the translator to choose either the standards applicable in the source culture, either those of the target culture; the preliminary norms – governing the selection of texts that will be translated and how to translate them; the operational norms, -including matrix rules and textual-linguistic rules, that govern the effective translation of a text ; the professional norms – derived from the analysis of literary and non-literary texts, produced by professional translators and Chesterman's theories (1997), namely the expectation norms – determined by the expectations of the readers in the target language and culture.

In addition, the translation norms for children's literature work according to certain fundamental principles that are intended to optimize the translation process as a whole. Thus, we mention the principle of adapting to foreign stringent, such as ideological or moral handling and the principle of adapting the text to internal development, such as the compliance of age and understanding level of readers and the compliance of the internal structure of the target language. Finally, in order to be accepted as a translated text for children, the final translated product must adhere to the above-mentioned principles and norms, or at least not violate them.

1.5. Children's texts: complexity or simplicity?

As I have already mentioned in the second section of this chapter, the translations foe children are difficult to achieve, because the text's integrality is directly affected by the need to shorten the text and the demand for a complicated text. When talking about children's literature, the norm of simple and simplified models is still prominent. This norm tends to determine not only the characterization and the thematic of the text, but also its options concerning permissible structures.

If we talk about complexity, the text of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865) is most interesting. In order to simplify this text to be accessible to children, all the elements that were considered too sophisticated were either changed or deleted. So, translators systematically deleted all the parody and satire of the original text. The paragraphs that contained those elements were not at all difficult to omit, because they did not contribute to the plot. In the original Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll intentionally made it impossible to determine whether things happen in a dream or in reality. The transfer into children's literature resulted in a simplified presentation that insisted on a clear distinction between reality and fantasy. For example, one adaptation ends in a phrase which leaves no doubt that is was anything but a dream: '' 'I am glad to be back where things are really what they seem', said Alice, as she woke up from her strange Wonderful dream'' (Disney Productions). The procedure of transformation of a text into a less complicated one and its adjustment to a simplified model is always achieved either by deletions or by changing the relation between elements and functions.

1.6. Conclusions

To conclude, translators are allowed to manipulate the integrality of the original text, because it is directly affected by the need to shorten the text and the demand of a less complicated text. The simplest manipulation of the text is done by deleting undesirable elements. When a translator assumes that a certain paragraph will not be understood by a child, he is allowed to make changes or deletions to adjust it to the appropriate comprehension level.

Therefore, obtaining an appropriate translation of a certain literary text for children, depends on the translator's ability to juggle with the variety of issues involved in translation, namely: objects, features, translation norms and principles and with his/her ability to simplify a text, in order to make it accessible to children. Children's literature was considered an important vehicle for achieving certain aims in the education of children.

2. Equivalence – an important issue in translating

literature for children

The notion of equivalence is one of the most controversial and problematic aspects from the domain of translation. This notion caused, and will probably continue to cause, intense debates among the researchers in this field. The term was also analysed from different perspectives. In translating children's literature, the theories and the types of equivalence occupy an important place, influencing the final result from target language. The difficulty of defining the concept of equivalence results from the impossibility of having a universal approach to the concept.

Translating literature for children means keeping the most important aspects from the original text and manipulating text with great freedom, in order to fulfil readers' expectations. In this context, the phrase used by Jakobson (1959: 2000) ''equivalence through difference'' seems to be primary in translating literary texts for children, translations that are harder to achieve than those for adults, due to level of comprehension of children or because of the taboo subjects. An interesting aspect is also the fact that the effect of equivalence is not the same for the readers of the source text, in comparison with the effect that equivalence has upon the readers of the target text.

2.1. What is equivalence?

An equivalent is an expression from a language which has the same meaning as, or can be used in a similar context to, one from another language, and can therefore be used to translate it.

Equivalence is central in the study of translation because it is closely connected to other important theoretical notions in translation studies. In fact, it has been so central that translation itself is defined in terms of equivalence, for example in Nida (1959: 19) who says that translation means: ''producing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the message of the source language, first in meaning and secondly in style''. Catford (1965: 20) defines translation as ''the replacement of textual material in one language (SL) by equivalent material in another language (TL)'', and Wilss (1982: 62) affirms that translation leads from a source-language text to a target-language text which is ''as close an equivalent as possible'' and presupposes an understanding of the content and style of the original.

However, not all early theorists made the mistake of defining translation itself in terms of equivalence. Jakobson (1959: 233) was one of the few early theorists who avoided the issue of equivalence altogether in his definition of translation, where he makes a well-known distinction between ''translation proper, rewording and transmutation'', giving a first important outline of the field of investigation without confining translation to a transfer between two or more different languages. This is later resumed and explained more clearly in Frawley (1984: 160) – '' translation means ''recodification'' […] As such, translation is nothing short of an essential problem of semiotics: it is the problem of transfer of codes.''

The notion of equivalence suppose a close bond between a specific original source text and a translated version of it. The weaker the relationship between the two, the more evasive the notion of equivalence becomes. It is, and probably will always be, more precise as a theoretical construct when it is treated as a semantic category. Definitions of equivalence can similarly be either normative (postulating a specific relation to be achieved) or descriptive (discovering a relation of equivalence between source and target elements).

2.2. Equivalence – formalism versus dynamism

The concept of equivalence can also be analysed as a swinging between formalism and dynamism. In order to do this, we have to discuss Nida's (1964) terms of formal and dynamic equivalence, emphasizing the accuracy and reproduction that are characteristic to formal equivalence and the adaptation, representative for the dynamic equivalence.

In terms of formal equivalence, Nida (1964) says that this type of equivalence ''focuses attention on the message itself, in both form and content''. However, there are not always formal equivalents between language pairs, therefore these formal equivalents should be used wherever possible, if the translation aims at achieving formal rather than dynamic equivalence. Serious implications should be made at times in the target text, since the translation will not be easily understood by the target audience. Nida and Taber (1969/1982) assert that: ''Typically, formal correspondence distorts the grammatical and stylistic patterns of the receptor language, and hence distorts the message, so as to cause the receptor to misunderstand or to labor unduly hard''.

As opposed to formal equivalence is dynamic equivalence, which, according to Nida (1964: 159) is based on ''the principle of equivalent effect''. The dynamic equivalence is a translation principle according to which a translator seeks to translate the meaning of the original in such a way that the text language wording will trigger the same impact on the target language audience as the original wording did upon the source text audience. ''Frequently, the form of the original text is changed; but as long as the change follows the rules of back transformation in the source language, of contextual consistency in the transfer, and of transformation in the receptor language, the message is preserved and the translation is faithful'' (Nida and Taber, 1982: 200).

The product of the translation process must have the same impact on the different readers it was addressing, but ''dynamic equivalence in translation is far more than mere correct communication of information'' (Nida, 1964). Despite using a linguistic approach to translation, Nida is much more interested in the message of the text, in its semantic quality.

Therefore, we must make sure that this message remains clear in the target text.

In translating literature for children, the natural equivalent which is the closest to the message from the source language refers to the interests, the needs, the reactions, the knowledge and the abilities that the children have in reading the target text, and to the context in which a certain message is produced, because translating literature for children includes a variety of genre and literary types, dedicated to children of different ages who have different concerns.

Newmark (1991) distinction between semantic and communicative translation is essential in analyzing literature for children through equivalence. The second type of translation, namely the communicative translation, is more important in translating children's literature, because this type of translation focuses on children and their knowledge. It is known that at a young age, children do not have so much knowledge in any field, so this type of translation relies on explaining in detail certain issues that are brought into discussion. In this particular situation, the translator takes into account the children and the adults as well, because the last ones are those who guide the children to certain readings.

To a certain degree, formal equivalence can be applied in children's literature translations, but the translator has to use the dynamic equivalence as well, because, as Oittinen (2000) affirms, a perfect equivalence between the source text and the target text is impossible to achieve.

2.3. The five levels of equivalence

Mona Baker (1992: 5) offers a more detailed list of equivalence and she explores the notion of equivalence at different levels, in relation to the translation process, including all different aspects of translation and hence, putting together the equivalence at word level, the equivalence above word level, the gramatical, texual and pragmatic equivalence.

2.3.1. Equivalence at word level

At word level, if a translator understands the concepts of semantic fields and lexical sets, he can appreciate the value that a certain word has in a certain system and can develop strategies of approaching the non-equivalence cases. If language were a list of tags for universal concepts, it would be easy to translate from one language to another. But in fact each language organizes the world in a different way. Languages do not simply name existing categories, they articulate their own. That’s why they can be defined as “systems of signs”. The value of each word varies according to its relationship with the whole system.

The first element to be taken into consideration by the translator are words as single units, in order to find a direct ''equivalent'' term in the target language. The definition of the term word -“the smallest unit of language that can be used by itself”, since a single word can sometimes be assigned different meanings in different languages and might be regarded as being a more complex unit or morpheme. The translator should pay attention to a number of factors when considering a single word, such as: number, gender and tense. Everything would be easier if there were a one-to-one relationship between words and meaning in the various languages. But it isn’t so.

2.3.2. Equivalence above word level

In order to convey meaning, words are usually combined together and there are restrictions to these combinations. The most common ones, especially those concerning classes of words, takethe form of rules. Equivalence above word level adresses to the issue of translating collocations, idioms and expressions.

Apart from grammar and syntax, among the elements that determine the arrangement of words in a text are rules concerning collocation. Whenever collocations appear in children's texts, the translators have to unravel their connotative meanings, even if those lost their expressive value because of the frequent use. Usually, the authors of children's books use a wide range of collocations to describe a place, a character or a situation.

Some idioms are treated as figures of speech, which are defined in the Collins English Dictionary (2006) as “an expression such as a simile, in which words do not have their literal meaning, but are categorized as multi-word expressions that act in the text as units”. Longman Idioms Dictionary (1998: 5) defines them as “a sequence of words which has a different meaning as a group from the meaning it would have if you understand each word separately”. Accordingly, idioms should not be broken up into their elements because they are sometimes referred to as a fixed expression. Some idioms may have no equivalent in the target language. Mona Baker affirms that different languages view the world differently. This means that while a language might express a specific meaning using a single word, another language may express it by the use of a different linguistic means such as an idiom, a fixed expression or an explanatory sentence and vice versa. This occurs largely in the case of culture-specific items, whether they are single words with defined attributive meaning, or idioms and fixed expressions with opaque and dim meanings.

In this regard Mona Baker (1992: 68) cites some other categories like ''fixed expressions with fixed formulae‟ including such examples as ''Merry Christmas'' and ''Say when'' or ''idioms with fixed formulae'' such as ''Yours sincerely'' and ''Yours faithfully''. She finally concludes that we mustn't always expect to find ''equivalent idioms and fixed expressions'' between languages. She mentions that: ''Idioms and fixed expressions which contain culture-specific items are not necessarily untranslatable'' (Baker, 1992: 68).

In order to deal with idioms and fixed expressions, Mona Baker (1992) suggests four detailed strategies. The first one is ''using an idiom of similar meaning and form‟ in a way that the target language idiom conveys exactly the ''same meaning‟ by the use of the ''same equivalent lexical items‟ to the source language ones. She also expresses that this kind of match can only be achieved occasionally. The second one is ''using an idiom of similar meaning but dissimilar form‟ in a way that an idiom or fixed expression in the target language has a meaning similar to that of the source idiom or expression, but consists of different lexical items (Baker, 1992: 74). The third one is the ''translation by paraphrase''. This is by far the most common way of translating idioms when a match cannot be found in the target language or when it seems inappropriate to use idiomatic language in the target text because of differences in stylistic preferences of the source and target languages (idem). And the last strategy is ''translation by omission'' (Baker, 1992: 77). This means that an idiom is entirely deleted in the target language because “it has no close match in the target language, its meaning cannot be easily paraphrased, or for stylistic reasons” (idem). This strategy is done mostly in the sentence or paragraph level. The reason for this phenomenon is that when an idiomatic expression is omitted, nearly always there is a ''loss'' in the meaning. To ''compensate'' the resulting loss, one is obliged to mention some supplementary words in some parts of the sentence or paragraph where an omission has been done.

2.3.3. Grammatical equivalence

Grammatical equivalence refers to the diversity of grammatical categories across languages. Grammatical rules may vary across languages and this may pose problems in terms of finding a direct correspondence in the target language. In fact, different grammatical structures in the source language and target language may cause remarkable changes in the way the information or message is carried across. These changes may induce the translator either to add or to omit information in the target text because of the lack of particular grammatical devices in the target language itself.

Amongst these grammatical devices which might cause problems in translation, Baker focuses on number, gender, person tense and aspect. In what concerns the number, the idea of ''countability'' is probably universal, but not all languages have a grammatical category of number, even if they might make distinctions at the lexical level. Most European languages, such as English and Romanian, make a distinction between one and more than one (singular/plural). This distinction is expressed morphologically by adding a suffix or changing the form of the word in some way ( boy/boys, child/children, foot/feet; pisică/pisici, carte/cărți, doamnă/doamne). Very few languages distinguish between singular, dual, trial and plural. A translator working from a language which makes number distinctions into one without the category of number can either omit the relevant information or encode it lexically, but s/he must be very careful not to over-specify this type of information, unless the context demands it, otherwise the translation in the TT might sound awkward because it would not reflect the usual way in which experience is represented in the TL.

Gender is a grammatical category according to which a pronoun or noun is classified as being feminine or masculine. Romanian apply this category to both people and inanimate objects. In this language, determiners and adjectives usually agree with the noun both in gender and number. English language does not have feminine, masculine, or neuter nouns, except in some cases. (mare/stallion, actor/actress, cow/bull, dog/bitch host/hostess). However it does have a category of person which in the third-person singular distinguishes between masculine feminine and neuter (inanimate) using three different pronouns (he/she/it). English language has long been trying to replace the masculine form with, he or she, him or her and to substitute words such as chairman and spokesman with chairperson and spokesperson. Colloquial English has introduced the use of you to address both the masculine and feminine members of a certain group.

Some attempts have also been made to use the feminine form as the unmarked (or general) one. Of course, this choice is rather difficult to transfer into languages pervaded by gender distinctions, and translators should avoid it unless they want to make an ideological point.

Without applying gender distinctions to nouns, English might be ambiguous when the referent of the noun is human. This creates some problems to translators into Romanian, for instance, when they find themselves in front of sentences such as: “I went out with a colleague/ friend, last night”, or “I went to see my father”, because in the languages we mentioned s/he will have no clue to decide whether to use the masculine or feminine form (or determiner) without the help of further context. In fact, English often plays on this ambiguity and the response to “I went out with a friend last night ” might be “A man or a woman?” forcing, for instance, a Romanian translator to recur to a vaguer term like persoană for friend.

The category of person relates to the notion of participant roles. In most languages these roles are defined through a closed system of pronouns. The most common distinction is that between first person (which identifies the speaker or a group including the speaker: I/we), second person (which identifies the person or persons addressed: you), and third person (which identifies persons and things other than the speaker and the addressee: he/she/it/they). The person system of Romanian language has a politeness dimension. In this language, a pronoun other than the second person singular is used in interaction with a singular addressee to express deference or non-familiarity (Romanian: dumneavoastră). This implies that the translator from English into Romanian has to make a decision on the nature of the relationship between the speakers and take into account the historical period in which the conversation takes place.

In Romanian language we have these categories, the form of the verb usually provides two types of information: time relations and aspectual differences. Time relations locate an event in time. The usual distinction is between past, present and future. Aspectual differences concern the temporal distribution of an event, its completion or non completion, continuation and so on.

2.3.4. Textual equivalence

The expressive potential of lexical items and grammatical structure is only realized in communicative events, that is, in text. Text has features of organization which distinguish it from non-text, that is to say from a simple collection of sentences and paragraphs, features that are always language and culture-specific. Every community has preferred ways of organizing its various types of discourse. The final aim of a translator is to achieve as much as possible equivalence at text level, rather than at word or phrase level.

Textual equivalence refers to the equivalence between a source language text and a target language text in terms of information and cohesion. Texture is a very important feature in translation since it provides useful guidelines for the comprehension and analysis of the source text which can help the translator in his or her attempt to produce a cohesive and coherent text for the target audience in a specific context. It is up to the translator to decide whether or not to maintain the cohesive ties as well as the coherence of the source language text. His or her decision will be guided by three main factors, that is, the target audience, the purpose of the translation and the text type. But perhaps we should start by saying what we can define as text. We identify a stretch of language as a text because we perceive a series of connections within and among its sentences. First, there are connections which are established through the arrangement of information within each sentence and the way it relates to the preceding and following ones. These connections contribute to topic development through thematic and information structures. Then, there are surface connections which establish relationships between persons and events and create cohesion. Finally, there are underlying semantic connections which allow us to see the text as a unit of meaning and include coherence and implicature.

2.3.5. Pragmatic equivalence

This last type of equivalence that we are going to deal with is named pragmatic equivalence. Pragmatics represents the study of meaning in a certain communicative situation. To contrast languages on the pragmatic level, he/she has to decide what the equivalence of these contrasted structures on the pragmatic level mean. A definition is that there is pragmatic equivalence between certain two expressions in the source language and the target language if they are used to perform the same speech. What we have to do is to look at the these strategies used in the two languages to perform these acts. For this purpose we will consider above all two aspects: coherence and implicative.

If cohesion represents the surface relations that can organize and create a certain text, coherence is the network of the conceptual relations which underlie the surface text as it is perceived by the users of the language. The presence of cohesive markers, such as lexical chains or linkers, is not sufficient to make a text to be coherent. A certain dialogue can be coherent to the participant or observer and not coherent to another one. From the point of view of ''translation'', this means that the difficulties that we encounter will not so much depend on the semantic and grammatical aspects of the ST in itself but on the audience this translation is addressed too. As a writer, a translator has to consider the knowledge available to her/his target readers, and their expectations, and their views on how the world is organized and on the structure of social relations, and the conventions of some particular text types in the TL. These are all elements that can affect the coherence of a certain text, because we can only make sense of the new information in terms of our beliefs, knowledge and previous linguistic and non- linguistic experience.

There is a known distinction between what is said and what is implicated, distinguishing truth-conditional aspects of meaning as what is said, and conventional and conversational implications as what is implicated. In this distinction, semantics and pragmatics overlap: there is no clear-cut boundary. Conventional implications, such as the meaning of contrast in ''but'', the conclusion to premises in ''therefore'', or the idea of overcoming difficulty in ''manage'', are part of word meaning but do not contribute to the truth-conditional content of sentences. Generalized conversational implications, such as enrichment from ''three'' to ''exactly three'', do not require context for their occurrence and are regarded by some as semantic, by others as either semantic or pragmatic, unlike particularized conversational implications which are context-dependent and certainly arrived at through pragmatic processes of inference. Implicature is not about what is explicitly said but what it is implied. Therefore, the translator has to work out the implied meanings in translation to get the source text message across. The role of this translator is to recreate the author's intention in the other culture in such a way that it enables the target culture reader to understand it clearly.

2.4. The problem of non-equivalence

Here are some types of non-equivalence that can pose difficulties to the translator. The choice of suitable equivalents in a certain context depends on a variety of factors. Some of these factors can be strictly linguistic. Other factors can be extra-linguistic. Both linguistic and extra-linguistic factors are shaping the form and the semantics of these lexical units in the languages, when the bearers of the languages get engaged in multilingual interactions.

When a translator makes a choice of a suitable equivalent, he will always take into account some factors, not only the linguistic system that is being handled by him. The first one is the way the translator manipulates the linguistic systems in question. The second are the background knowledge, expectations, and prejudices of readers within a specific spatial and temporal location. The third type focuses on translators' own understanding of their task, including their assessment of what is appropriate in a certain situation. And this last one includes a range of restrictions that may operate in a given environment or at a given point in time, including censorship and some various types of intervention by parties other than the translator, author, and reader.

At word level, non-equivalence means that the target language has no direct equivalent for a word which occurs in the source text. In what concerns the non-equivalence at word level, there are some common types that deserve to be put in question.

There are situations when the source language concept is not lexicalized in the target language, meaning that is not allocated a target language word to express a certain term. There are many examples such as: handy, software, bit, remote-control, etc.

Some concepts may be specific to a certain culture, meaning that a word from the SL may express a concept that is unknown in the TL. The concept may be abstract or concrete, it may relate to a social custom, religious belief or even a type of food. For example, the word sarmale from Romania refers to a type of food that has not an equivalent in England, so an English man would keep the term as it is in the source language.

It may happen that the target language lacks a specific term. Languages tend to have generic terms, but lack specific ones, since each language makes only those distinctions in meaning which seem relevant to its particular environment. For example the English words : bungalow, villa, cottage, hall, manor, croft, mansion, chalet, lodge, hut, mean all house, but not all of them have equivalents in Romanian language.

The translators of children's literature that deal with the problem of non-equivalence at word level may use the following strategies, in order to realise a good translation. Firstly they can translate by using a more general term; secondly they use a less expressive or neutral term; then they can translate by using a borrowed word that may or may not be accompanied by an explanation; by cultural substitution and by paraphrasing translation or by omission and illustrations.

2.5. Concluding remarks

In trying to define the term equivalence, we come to the conclusion that this notion is quite debatable, because there are obvious discrepancies in the views of various theorists. However, this term continues to be considered appropriate. By making an attempt to specify the concept of equivalence more precisely, bearing in mind the various categories, we can conclude that the concept of equivalence postulates a relation between the source language text and the target language text. The kind of equivalence relation is defined in terms of the conditions to which one refers when using the term equivalence.

Especially in translating children's literature, the translators choose to reduce the discrepancies between the ST and the model with which the reader from the target culture is already familiarized with and what happens because translators want to maintain the coherence level of the text. The intervention vary from translator to translator and it depends on two factors. The first one – the translator's ability to evaluate the target text reader's knowledge and expectations and the second – involves translator's own perspective about her/his role.

That being said, equivalence is a concept that deserves to be analysed in the context of children's literature translations, and the model that should be followed in analyzing is a dynamic one, because it has an immediate impact on the professional translator by helping her/him to solve the problems that appear during the process of translation.

3. Translating cultural references in children's books

3.1. Cultural implications for translation

Literary texts for children display many peculiarities, as well as cultural and social aspects of the life and, thus, we can assert that literary translation for children is one of the main modes of communication across cultures. The translation of this kind of texts, however, is not an easy task, since it definitely poses many problems to the translator. One of the problems a translator can face arises from the fact that some words or phrases denoting facts, objects, phenomena, etc, are so deeply rooted in their source culture (SC) and so specific to the culture that made them, that they have no equivalent in the target culture (TC), be it because they are unknown, or because they are not yet codified in the target language (TL). When we discuss the problems of correspondence in translation, ''differences between cultures may cause more severe complications for the translator than do differences in language structure'' (Nida, 1964: 130).

When cultural differences exist between the two languages, it is extremely difficult to achieve a successful transfer (whatever the skills of the translator in both languages are involved). And even the variation from the source language (SL) cultural term can be taken as an act of subversion against the culture that it represents. Literary translation for children can even be seen as an act of subversion, or a means of providing some alternatives or the subversion of reality. As Levine affirms, ''the literary translator can be considered a subversive scribe''. In the same line of thought, when talking about the task of translating literature, Silver states: ''I understand subversion as at the core of the translation project itself'' (Silver, 5).

Translation is the kind of activity which involves at least two languages and two cultural traditions. (Toury, 1978: 200). So, translators are permanently faced with the problem of how to treat the cultural aspects in the source text and to find the most appropriate technique of conveying these aspects in the target language. ''These problems may vary in scope, depending on the cultural and linguistic gap between the two languages concerned.'' ( Nida, 1964: 130).

The cultural implications for translation may have several forms, from syntax and lexical content to ideologies and the ways of life from a given culture. The translator also has to decide on the importance given to certain cultural aspect and to what extent it is desirable to translate them into the target text. The aims of source text will also have implications for translation as well as the intended readership for both the source text and the target text.

Cultural implications for a certain translated text, involve recognizing all of the problems. Then, the translator has to take into account some possibilities, before deciding on the solution which is the most appropriate in each case.

''Culture is defined as the combination of the ways and means of acting, thinking, feeling and perceiving reality, within which language plays a vital role.'' When translating, differences in cultures must be indentified in order to give solutions in accordance with the established concept of the target text culture.

It is easier to translate texts with similar cultures than those which are different. How the languages of related cultures do have similar historical grammar, vocabulary, roots and language, the patterns may be similar. One more reason is the fact that a country's Children's Literature and its Translation (ChL), representative of the cultural background, is determined by moral, political and pedagogic values. To understand these values, children have to be equated with some familiar ideas. Therefore, similar concepts in the literature of source language and target language may help the process of transposition.

The barriers of cultural translation arise because of the different perceptions of the genre of Children's literature, as Shine (1978: 119) says: ''it is possible that certain cultures are antagonistic towards the introduction of genre foreign to their ChL. It is also possible that such cultures interpret genre definitions in such ways as to inhibit the introduction of foreign equivalents.''

A country receiving a translated text can react in different ways. Wolfram Eggeling (1994: 16, 17) portrays a model, established by J. Link, of how literature can be received socially and outlines four patterns:

1. Primary conculturality – text and audience do belong to the same epoch. The readers may show interest for the text and can identify with it, although they do not necessarily agree with it.

2. Disculturality – aesthetic experience and expectations of the public clash with the aesthetic procedures of the text. The relation between text and the audience does not arise because the audience rejects the book.

3. Secondary conculturality – this can happen in the case in which there are different ideologies between text and public. Here, the text is modified to the audience's wishes. Link sees this type as a common process that happens in literature.

4. Classicity – the public perceives the text as being aesthetic. Because of cultural or historical distance, it no longer plays a role. Link underlines that the public's reaction does not have to be negative and, that it is possible that the public will react with secondary con culturality towards the historical texts.

In Children's Literature, the most important question is what has been deleted from a certain book and why. In case of disculturality, it should be considered that there was really no possibility for secondary conculturality or whether the foreign elements were not received as ''exotic'' in the sense of classicism. Von Stockar (1996: 27) says that, in ChL, secondary conculturality has a great significance, owing to its didactic and pedagogical task. The revised adaptations and versions make sure that cultural peculiarities of the source text are adjusted to the knowledge and the experience of the TT reader. The decision must be made from case to case, whether such a treatment is or is not justifiable.

3.2. Regional Effects on Literature for Children

When speaking about the aim of international understanding, there are closely-linked, geographical regions which facilitate the contribution that Children's Literature and its Translation can make to international understanding by their influence on the distribution paths of translated children's books.

Klingberg (1978: 89) defines a ''children's literature region'' as ''a group of countries characterized by a common pattern as regards the SLs published translations of children's books''. The formation of these regions is explained mainly through history and through the close contacts between that respective countries. Each region import children's books from different languages, and it shows that roughly the same pattern and books in certain languages are translated more often than books in other languages. This explains, he says, why some books simply do not fit in a certain country because of its culture and which it's better to not be translated.

The most of translated children's books originate from countries belonging to closely related language areas with similar socio-cultural structures. In this respect, it should be noted that various characteristics like social and political structures, customs and conventions contribute to shaping the culture of a particular country. These cultural peculiarities vary between these countries, though there may be some overlap, which increases the nearer these countries are politically and geographically.

So, translations are cultural transfers attempting to reader the culture-specific details of the target language, making them clear to the reader without interrupting the flow. In the case of major cultural differences between source text and target text which the translator has failed to modify sufficiently to the target culture, publishers have to turn down the book. However, this problem should not occur too often because – in practice – only literature from countries with similar cultural structure is translated.

Lots of studies have attempted to trace the flow of literature to determine which countries enjoys closely-affiliated literary relationships. These findings have shown that Austria, Scandinavia and Germany belong to the same geographical ChL region (Furuland 1978; Shine 1978). This is characterised by the excessive import of books from Anglo-American language area, a moderate import from Dutch and French literature, a reasonable flow between these countries and by an almost total failure to import from other language areas, such as Slavic or Asiatic. However, the countries from the former Eastern bloc, including the USSR, have between themselves a regular exchange of their respective literatures, as do the Asiatic countries, and the Spanish and French regions are also closely connected. Both Shine and Furuland found the hypothesis confirmed that literature regions are formed by close economic, cultural and political activities.

A study was concluded by Rutschmann (1996), who investigated the different language areas within the Swiss confederation – The Italian, German, Rhaeto-Romanic, and French ones. Her analysis revealed that Italian, French and German area mainly exchanged literature with neighbouring countries of the same language, as far as Rutschmann could observe, there was hardly cultural activity. However, the biggest imports for these regions are from the Anglo-American region.

According to the degree of cultural closeness or the degree of ''foreignness'', different considerations will play a role and different processes will come into effect. If the cultural difference is very big and is considered impossible to overcome, the book is not translated at all. In the event of less dominant cultural specifics – it is the case with the majority of the translations – it is up to translators to decide when and if to withhold information from the readers, so as to avoid making changes to that text, or whether to make available the culture- specific elements to the readers. But, in doing this, they have to modify the text or give explanations in footnotes or on a preface.

3.3. The Ideal Reader

A question that has to be asked when considering a text to be translated, is for whom the original text was destined and whether this relationship corresponds to the potential target text reader. Thus two types of ideal reader may be distinguished: the source text ideal reader and the target text ideal reader.

Coulthard (1992: 12) highlights the importance of defining the ideal reader for whom the author ''attributes knowledge of certain facts, memory of certain experiences […] plus certain opinions, preferences and prejudices and a certain level of linguistic competence.'' When considering these aspects, it should not be forgotten that the extent to which the author may be influenced by such notions is dependent on his own way of belonging to a specific socio – cultural group.

Once the ideal ST readership has been determined, considerations must be made concerning the target text. According to Coulthard (1992: 12):

The translator's first and major difficulty […] is the construction of a new ideal reader who, even if he has the same academic, professional and intellectual level as the original reader, will have significantly different textual expectations and cultural knowledge.

In the case of the translated extract, it is debatable whether the ideal target text reader has ''significantly'' different textual expectations, however his cultural knowledge will almost vary considerably.

Applied to the criteria used to determine the ideal source text reader, it may be observed that few conditions are successfully met by the ideal target text reader. Indeed, the cultural and historical facts are unlikely to be known in detail along with the specific cultural situations that are described. Furthermore, despite considering the level of linguistic competence to be roughly equal for the source text and target text reader, some differences may possibly be observed in response to the use of culturally specific lexis which must be considered when we translate.

Although certain opinions, prejudices and preferences may be instinctively transposed by the target text reader, who may liken them to his experience. It must be said that these do not match the social experience of the source text reader. Therefore, the core cultural and social aspects remain problematic when considering the cultural implications for translation.

3.4. Cultural Categories

Adapting Nida, Newmark (1998: 95-102) places ''foreign cultural words'' in several categories. When following these categories, cultural implications for translations may be classed essentially as material culture and as gestures, expressions and habits. These aspects may be translated in different ways, according to their role in the text and the aims for the target text reader. Newmark also observes the relevance of componential analysis in translation ''as a flexible but orderly method of bridging the numerous lexical gaps, both linguistic and cultural, between one language and another'' ( Newmark, 1988: 123). The two orientations in translation examined by Nida, namely formal and dynamic equivalence, should also be considered when analysing the cultural implications for translation of elements in these categories. More than these categories reminded above, there is another one that we should take into account: translation of proper names.

3.4.1. Material Culture

''Food is for many the most sensitive and important expression of national culture; food terms are subject to the widest variety of translation procedures'' (Newmark, 1988: 97). The terms coming under this category are rather complicate, due to the ''foreign'' elements present. One such case is the reference to English words bread and butter. We can find it in Chapter 7 of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, entitled A Mad Tea Party. The context in which these words appear is when Alice and The March Hare were at the table and ''…March Hare took the watch and looked at it gloomily; then he dipped it into his cup of tea, and looked at it again: but he could think of nothing better to say than his first remark: 'It was the best bread and butter, you know' ''. The translation into Romanin proposed by Mirella Acsente (2007) is: ,,…își scoase ceasul din buzunar și se uită la el rușinat; apoi îl puse în ceașca de ceai și îl privi din nou, apoi spuse: 'E cea mai bună pâine cu unt', răspunse spășit Iepurele de Martie.'' The Romanian translation is pâine cu unt, because translating pâine și unt hardly seems appropriate bearing in mind the difference in form of the target language reference. This illustrates the theory of Mounin (1963), who underlines the importance of the signification of a lexical item claiming that only if this notion is considered, the translated item will fulfil its function correctly.

Another example of material culture includes English tea. We can find it in Chapter 7: '' Alice looked all round the table, but there was nothing on it, but English tea. 'I don't see any wine', she remarked.'' The Romanian translation proposed by Mirella Accsente (2007) is: ,,Alice se uită atent pe masă, dar pe ea nu era decât ceai englezesc, 'Nu văd vinul' remarcă ea.'' In England, this high-quality tea is widely known and is one of the traditional drinks with England dishes, therefore widely sold in supermarkets, as well as this type of small shop. This example can be seen as corresponding to the new ideal reader as described by Coulthard (1992: 12), having different cultural knowledge as a Romanian-speaking reader would not necessary know the name of this tea and/or its associations. By using strictly formal equivalence, all meaning would be lost. It would however be possible to neutralise the original term English by translating as ''tea'', to introduce a form of componential analysis, translating as quality, English tea. In this way, although the cultural implications are not so strong as for an ''initiated'' Romanian reader, the information is passed on and elucidated by a qualifier. The cultural implications automatically understood by the ST reader, namely the notion of high quality tea, are not however conveyed, the emphasis in this context being on the exotic nature of the product as conveyed by English and the expensive.

3.4.2. Gestures, Expressions and Habits

Newmark (1988: 103) says that gestures and habits are ''often described in 'non cultural' language''. In this extract, many habits and gestures are implied yet not specifically described thus making the entire communicative translation difficult. These are cultural references which imply a certain knowledge of the way of life of British and of Romanian's attitude towards it.

One example that describes very well this difficulty of translating a British habit is ''Five o'clock tea'' – a British tradition that is present in the story Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. For Romanians drinking tea at five o'clock has no significance, meanwhile for British this is extremely meaningful. In England, this tradition of drinking tea started in the 1800's when Anna – the 7th Duchess of Bedford who, at that time was a close friend of Queen Victoria and a prominent figure within London society complained of ''having that sinking feeling'' during the late afternoon. She wanted something to satisfy her hunger, just something to see her through dinner time. From this want, the afternoon tea rituals were born. However, we have to say that it was traditionally only a small bite of something, not the big celebration that it is now.

During the 1880's society women and upper-class would change into long gowns, hats and gloves for their afternoon tea, which was served in the drawing room between four and five o'clock. The afternoon tea tradition was born inside the houses of fortunate and rich, but once summer came around, those persons wanted to take this fabulous time of day outside, into their nice gardens. When the misses took the afternoon tea ritual outside, it encouraged the men of the house to take part in this activity. Moving their afternoon tea outside meant all people in the house could enjoy it. Tea was a fine delicacy at that time and people drinking it, wanted that the whole world know that they could afford it. People wanted to be like their ladies and lords and from that day forward, the afternoon tea tradition was born. Afternoon tea is a tradition of British lives, it is ever so British, elegant and classic.

Another British tradition described in the same story reminded above is ''the cricket

game'' which was played by the Queen with the persons and the creatures that were present

there, but following the rules desired by the Queen, and not the original game's rules. In England, the cricket game is a very known tradition, while in Romania we barely heard about this game. The origins of the game of cricket were lost in the mists of time. There is reference in the household accounts of Edward First in 1300 of a game like cricket that was played in Kent. The English game is originated in the country of the South East, where the short grass of the down load pastures made possible to bowl the ball of wool. That target was the wicket-gate of the sheep pasture, which was defended with a stick in the form of a shepherd's crooked stick. By the 17th century the game was popular as a rough rural pastime, but in the following century the leisure classes took up the sport, particularly in Kent, London and Sussex. By the middle of the 18th century the game of cricket was being played at every level of society, from villages to wealthy estates. However, the game wanted a coherent set of rules. 

The most influential cricket club in the land was formed at Hambledon, Hampshire, in the years 1760. The club was sponsored by patrons, but the players were local farmers and tradesmen. The Hambledon Club established techniques of batting and bowling which still hold today, and Hambledon keeps a page in history books as the "Birthplace of Cricket". The centre of power of the game soon shifted to London, most notably with the establishment of the Marylebone Cricket Club, which had its headquarters at Lord's ground. In 1835 the MCC gave cricket its first laws, which still stand largely today. 

A major boost for the game of cricket was provided by public schools such as Winchester, Harrow and Eton. The game proved so popular among the students that an annual match called "Gentlemen vs. Players" took place at Lord's from 1806-1963. The amateur "Gentlemen" from the schools played their semi-professional counterparts; the "Players" in a match that was the highlight of the season.

Biggest cricket matches can last as long as 5 days, with each side having two "innings", or turns at stick. An alternative to the longer matches are "limited over" matches. These events may take 3-5 hours during the course of only one day. 

The sport of cricket is now played worldwide, and despite its occasional successes, it is fair to say that the real power in the game has shifted from England to nations such as India, Australia, South Africa, Pakistan, and the West Indies. In England the major focus of the game is the county championships, with both four-day and one-day games running simultaneously during the months of summer. But traditional village cricket is still played in villages and towns all across the UK.

The expression ''A cat may look at a king'', that we encounter in eight Chapter of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland – The Queen's Croquet Ground – also needs further explanation. It is used when Alice defends the Cheshire Cat and says to the king: '' 'A cat may look at a king', said Alice.''. The translation of this paragraph, proposed by Mirella Acsente (2007) is: ,,O pisică poate să se uite la un rege, spuse Alice'', and the translator also gives explanations about what this expression means for an English person.

In England this is a saying that means that there are things that the inferiors can do in the presence of superiors. As Sapir claims, ''no two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality'' (Sapir, 1956: 69), and even a lexical item seen as having an apparently simple translation may have considerably different signification. The emphasis given by Nida (1964: 139) on a TT having to produce the same response as it is proposed by the original. If this is impossible to be realised, the translator has to give further explanation, in order to transfer the meaning in target text. In this way, the lexical function is transferred as far as possible in the target text as are the source text cultural connotations.

3.5. Translation of Proper Names

Taking into account the cultural aspects of languages, the translator must pay attention to cultural elements of the two languages she or he is dealing with. No doubt, the greatest difficulty in translation lies in the differences between the two languages. In any language, there could be found writings in which there are lexical items of this nature – such as proper names, items that belong to the culture of that certain language. Different translators adopt strategies to cope with the culture specific wares in children's literature. These are culture bound wares, which are semantic voids and often cause a translation problem.

The main difficulty relating to cultural markers or references concerns the translation of proper names that are different in Romanian and other language texts. Soltesz (cited in Vermes, 2001: 4) defines proper names as ''expressions denoting unique entities and that are part of the linguistic system of the community to which the donation of the name belongs.'' Soltesz goes on to distinguish between three main types of proper names with respect to their meaning. Me, I will exemplify this three categories with examples of names from the book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

a) 'Sign names' like Alice, these have no meaning in the way that a common name does, and

are non-connotative, non-descriptive and unmotivated.

b) 'Word names' which are motivated, mostly descriptive and connotative, like the Mouse, the Caterpillar, the Rabbit or the Cat. It is noted that with the passing of time many of these names have lost their descriptive meaning and have become opaque in this respect.

c) The third type includes names which are combinations of sign names and of elements from the common word classes. These elements may be suffixes, adjectives, or, most frequently, words naming a higher-level conceptual category. One example of such a name is William the Conqueror, reminded by Alice in the second and the third chapters of the book.

William the Conqueror or William the Bastard (1028-1087) was the first Norman King of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087. In the 1050s and early 1060s William became a contender for the throne of England, then held by childless Edward the Confessor, his first cousin once removed. There were some other potential claimants, including the powerful English earl Harold Godwin son, who was named the next king by Edward on the latter's deathbed in January 1066. William said that Edward had promised the throne to him, and that Harold had sworn to support William's claim. William invaded England in September 1066, decisively defeating and killing Harold at the Battle of Hastings. After military efforts William was crowned king on Christmas Day 1066, in London. He made arrangements for the governance of England in early 1067 before returning to Normandy. There followed certain unsuccessful rebellions, but by 1075 William's hold on England was secure, allowing him to spend the biggest part of the rest of his reign on the continent.

William's final years were pointed by difficulties in his continental domains, troubles with his son, and threatened invasions of England by the Danes. In 1085 William made the compilation of the Domesday Book, a survey listing all the landholders in England along with their holdings. William died in September 1087 while leading a campaign in northern France, and was buried in Caen. His England reign was marked by the construction of some castles, the settling of a new Norman nobility on that land, and change in the composition of the English clergy. He did not try to integrate his domains into one single empire, but continued to administer each part separately. William's lands were divided after his death: Normandy went to Robert, his eldest son,  and his second son William, had received England.

Nord (2003: 57) defines names as ''the words by which an individual referent is identified, that is to say, the words whose main function are to identify, for instance, an individual person, animal, place, or thing.'' Nord continues by saying that in this sense,

''names possess a certain deictic quality in that they point directly to a single, concrete referent; however, sometimes they may also acquire a semantic load which takes them beyond the singular mode of signification. Therefore, names are viewed as mono-referential – they refer to a single entity – but not as mono-functional, since they may function as carriers of semantic, semiotic, and/or sound symbolic meanings in literary works.''

3.6. Translation Strategies of Proper Names

Personal names constitute a big problem in translation. For translating proper names, different models are suggested. As Vermes (2001: 1) says, ''there is a popular view that proper names do not need to be translated into foreign languages.'' Even more surprisingly, the point is maintained not only by ordinary people but by some scholars of language as well. Among those who believe in the non-translation of proper names, Vendler (cited in Vermes, 2001: 1) says that ''since proper names do not have meaning they are not translated, and simply are carried over to the foreign language during translation.'' To reinforce this statement Vendler says that we do not find proper names listed in dictionaries, which also shows that they are not part of our knowledge of the language. In this view, proper names are to be treated as labels, which are attached to persons and objects.

An opposite view is held by Searle (1975: 45) ''proper names, beyond their identifying function, may also carry 'senses'.'' He claims that when somebody uses a proper name, he/she must be able to substitute an identifying description of the referent of the proper name; otherwise he/she would violate the principle of identification and consequently, would fail to perform a definite reference.

Van Coillie (2006: 123) talks about ten possible strategies a translator can adopt when

dealing with the translation of proper names in fiction. The next table consists of different types of strategies adopted in translationof proper names with the characteristics of each one .

Van Coillie's Model of Translating Proper Names

3.7. Concluding remarks

When we talk about translating children’s literature, pedagogical and social factors come into the foreground. Children’s books do not only provide entertainment, but also help to the development of children’s reading skills. As Puurtinen (2006: 58) says, ''children's books convey knowledge about the world, about values, customs and accepted behaviours and can be used to shape identities, values, cultural expectations.''

Children's literature has special characteristics, which are embedded in the language of children. Moreover, translators who are specialized in children’s literature find evident that a good translation is an equivalent, faithful translation, and a good translator is an invisible, faithful translator, and also the function of a translation should be the same as that of its original. In dealing with proper names, material culture and gestures and habits, translators refer to their own knowledge of the target culture, experiences, ideas, norms and values. In order to maintain the function of the original work, the translator has to recognize the meaning of these points. By increasing the notions of multiculturalism and internationalism, translators incline to preserve foreign items in translation and they often do so for the purpose of bringing children into contact with other cultures trough translation.

Some different approaches have been examined in relation to the cultural implications for translation. It is necessary to examine this approaches bearing in mind the inevitability of the translation loss when the text is culturally bounded. The nature of the text and the similarities between the ideal source text and target text reader is an important aspect to determine how much missing information should be provided by the translator using these methods. It has been proven that in order to preserve specific cultural references, certain additions need to be brought to the target text. This implies that formal equivalence should not be sought as this is not justified when considering the expectations of the ideal target text reader. At the end of Nida's scale, dynamic equivalence does not seem totally desirable either as cultural elements have been kept, to preserve the original aim of the text, namely to present one aspect of life in a certain country.

According to Newmark (1988), the cultural implications for translation of this kind of source text do not justify using either of these two extremes and tend to correspond to the definition of communicative translation, attempting to ensure that language and content present in the source language context, is fully comprehensible and acceptable to the readership.

4. Text-illustration relationship in children's books

Every act of translation is supposed to communicate the right message. To reach such a goal, it is necessary for a translator to concern for the target text reader's 'context of situation'. The 'context of situation' may be realized by the needs of the target reader's age, which affects the procedure of translation that a translator may adopt. One group of readers, which should be paid much attention to, is represented by children. This attention gets more prominent when visual aspects, which incorporate connotation and culture, contribute to convey meaning whose understanding calls for a prior knowledge of the related concepts. The biggest part of what we realize in our daily or specialized aspects of our lives is done not directly but through signs which convey something other than themselves. While there are some universals, perception of such signs is relied on the cultural background of individuals. In the act of translation, these nation-specific dimensions of text may be problematic for the target language reader. This problem may be more manifested if some part of the job of words in the source language text is relegated to the pictures as in picture books, one type of children’s literature. In such a case words and pictures play a bilateral role in conveying the meaning. It is the job of the translator to realize the relationship between the two sign systems, namely visual and linguistic, and the method of translation to make the text readable for the intended target children reader. Also to convey the intended meaning, art directors play a crucial role in translating texts which include the original pictures.

Art directors, specialized in both literature and pictures or illustrations, realize that some aspects of the original pictures should be conversed in terms of direction and elongation in order to be meaningful for a target text reader.

Many researchers have been conducted in the area of translating picture books to explore the relationship between the words and pictures, some of which are as follows: Oittinen (2008) focuses on multiple issues such as: 1) Translating as rewriting; 2) The issue of co-print in Picture book translations; 3) How the visual information in a story, e.g. picture book, influences the verbal information and vice versa. With regards to the third item, Oittinen concludes that in picture books whole situations including the words, the pictures, and the whole reading aloud situation is to be translated.

Van Meerbergen (2006), on the basis of Kress and Van Leeuwen’s (2006) multimodal analysis integrated into a descriptive model of translation analysis, proposed by Toury (1995), considers the translation of picture books. Van Meerbergen concludes that by using a multimodal analysis, the changing semiotic interplay between the verbal and the visual can be studied and it also allows the study of how the semiotic content of pictures changes when placed into a new textual and a context that is socio-cultural.

Some of the problems Thomsom-Wohlgemuth (1998) focuses on in chapter two of his MA project about the problems of translating pictures in children’s literature are: The style of the text should correspond to the style of the pictures in a book and to look optimally author/translator and artist complete each other’s work. He says that whether the original pictures are taken into the target text or new ones are commissioned, the translator should consider the illustrations of the target text book to produce a consistent translation.

4.1. Illustrations and the text

According to Bodmer (1992: 72), pictures or illustrations serve to "interpret, explain, expand, or decorate a written text". They perform certain functions that may differ from those of gallery illustrations. Art work in picture books is most often concerned with storytelling. Therefore, illustrations/pictures in picture books may function in one or more of the following ways.

1) Establish setting. In picture books, as in all literature, setting is used to establish a story's location in place and time, create a mood, clarify historical background, provide an antagonist, or emphasize symbolic meaning (Norton, 1987). Picture storybooks, however, strongly or sometimes completely rely on illustrations/pictures to serve these functions of a setting. For example, time periods in historical stories or distant cultural settings can be brought to life through pictures/illustrations in ways words cannot do.

2) Define and develop characters. The characters in picture books must have specific traits that make them appealing to the child reader and that meet the demands of the short for mat. Because a short story does not normally allow for more developed characters, pictures help develop the characters by depicting emotions and situations immediately credible and familiar to the children. In wordless illustration books the development and depiction of characters rely on illustrations/pictures. In picture storybooks, illustrations/pictures can supplement characterization in the text by showing the characters' reactions to one another or giving to the characters an extra fleshing out.

3) Extend or develop plot. The brevity of text in illustration books often severely constrains the development of the story plot. Thus, the plot of a story is often advanced by illustrations/pictures. In wordless illustration books, the whole plot is unfolded through pictures/illustrations. In picture/illustration storybooks the plot can be extended or rounded a little by illustrations/pictures.

4) Provide a different viewpoint. Whether intended or not, illustrations/pictures sometimes tell a slightly different or even contradictory story than the text. It seems that the greater proportion of illustration/pictures to text, the greater the influence illustrations/pictures have in the creation of story (Lukens, 1990).

5) Contribute to textual coherence. Coherence refers to the extent to which the sequencing or ordering of ideas in a text makes sense to its implied readers and the extent to which the language used in discussing those ideas make the nature of ideas and their relationships apparent (Tannen, 1984). Illustrations/pictures can contribute to textual coherence when well integrated with print or through providing referential cues for the text.

6) Reinforce text. In certain instances, the primary function of picture/illustration book illustrations is to reinforce, rather than to extend or amplify the text. Nonfiction picture books often fall into this category, with the illustrations and diagrams providing a visual restatement of the words. However, illustrations/pictures in a picture storybook may also function primarily to reinforce the story.

4.2. The importance of pictures in children's books

Picture/illustration books are profusely illustrated books in which the illustrations are, to varying degrees, essential to the enjoyment and understanding of the story (Tomlinson and Lynch-Brown, 1996). As the most characteristic form of children's literature (Nodelman, 1996), picture books hold a prominent place in children's literature because of the juxtaposition of illustrations and words. Thanks to the reader's acute awareness of the importance of childhood in human development, to professional critical evaluation of children's literature, as well as to the advances in printing technology and art reproduction, children's literature has witnessed an increase in well-illustrated picture books.

Despite the popularity of illustration books, the relationships of illustration/pictures to print and to the child reader remain little understood (Elster and Simons, 1985; Schallert, 1980). As Margaret Meek (1991) says, "The relation of pictures to stories and the nature of the reader's interaction with both are an important aspect of literacy too little regarded and even less understood" (cited in Johnson, 1993: 20).

When thinking back to childhood, most people have found memories of illustration books that they had read. We often associate picture books with a child cozying up with a loved one. Picture books have a special appeal and importance for young children in the years before and while they learn to read, but many picture books are also suited for older or even adult readers (Wolfenbarger and Sipe, 2007). The best illustration books appeal across age groups, providing a compelling interplay between the text and illustrations/pictures and allowing readers of all ages to gain meaning from both. ''In a picture book, words and pictures never tell exactly the same story. It is this dissonance that catches the reader’s attention[…]. Satisfying picture books create a playing field where the reader explores and experiments with relationships between words and the pictures'' (Wolfenbarger and Sipe, 2007: 274).

The attention to illustrations wanes as children become more specialized readers. In approaching picture/illustration books, pre-readers will often pay attention to the illustrations without attending to the text as it is read. On the other hand, more specialized readers, including adults, will often read the text without attending to the illustrations (Nikolajeva and Scott, 2000). In a carefully crafted illustration book, both the text and illustrations/pictures play an important role in perceiving the book’s full meaning. As Agosto (1999: 278) says, a story told in words and pictures/illustrations ''is not merely the sum of the meanings of the two media forms, but it is a story more complex in some way than the simple summation of the two partial stories''.

The relationship of illustrations/pictures to the text in a picture book can be described in 3 basic ways, as distilled from the work of Nikolajeva and Scott (2000) and Agosto (1999). Below we have three major categories along with examples. Through read-aloud, we can help students to notice when text and illustration interplay in these ways:

1) Symmetry – Illustrations/pictures closely correlates with the text. The illustrations/pictures simply reflect what is told in the text rather than adding any new meanings or nuances.

2) Augmentation – Illustrations/pictures enhance or extend the text, or give a new meaning not expressed in the text. Through the illustrations/pictures, the reader discovers something that doesn't appear in the text. Only the illustrations/pictures provide this critical information, lending meaning to the story as a whole.

3) Contradiction – Illustrations/pictures present a meaning contrary to the text.

Picture books are enjoyed by our youngest readers, but as Wolfenbarger and Sipe (2007: 278) note, ''Unfortunately, many readers leave primary grades with the idea that picture books are only for the very young […]. Teachers who incorporate picture books / illustrated books in picture book format in the instruction and have these books available in the classroom, can diminish the reluctance of older readers to return to the pleasure of reading books with many illustrations''. It’s time to appreciate picture/illustration books for the way their carefully crafted text and illustrations/pictures can engage readers of all ages.

Younger children are mostly attracted to the colourful images depicted in the books appropriate for them. Some of the books allocated to children contain no words and there are just a series of continuous pictures which they interpret for themselves or their parents may interpret it for them. Whether there are words included in image books or not, illustrations help children to grasp the content more easily and they may make more convenient interaction with the world.

Through pictures, children learn about their surroundings and the world. When children are read to, picture helps them to imagine the individual characters, the scenery, etc. Through pictures, they learn about contexts in the text when reading on their own; through pictures, their imagination develops; through pictures, they are given incentives to continue with their reading. (Thomsom-Wohlgemuth, 1998: 73)

Where there are illustrations used, both words and illustrations play their role to convey the meaning. Van Meerbergen (2006: 2) says about such a text in which words and illustrations have a bilateral interplay as 'Multimodal text': ''The picture book will thus be considered as a multimodal text where meaning is created through a complex interaction between verbal and visual text components''. Van Meerberger defines the 'multimodal' text as being realized through multisemiotic code. In this respect Oittinen (2008), titles illustration books as "icon texts" which incorporate two semiotic systems, the visual and verbal and are based on series of pictures and have a serial character and instead of frames, illustration books have the turnings of the pages. In picture books the ideas of the illustrator gets the same prominence as that of the author. Oittinen (2000) calls the relationship between the author, the illustrator, the translator and the publisher as "Dialogic relation". Consequently the meaning in picture books is perceived through such a dialogue and images are regarded as a special kind of language through which communication is possible. There are several kinds of illustration books each of which are appropriate for specific children ages. Moss and Suben (1995) point that small children are literal-minded as they do not have a wealth of associations for new ideas and therefore the illustration books for them should not be overwhelmed. Norton (1999: 216-233) classifies the kinds of illustration books and offers the most suitable age category of readers for each of them:

1) Mother goose rhymes: Are the first literature enjoyed by young children who are experimenting with their own language patterns. They can aid children through the development of their language.

2) Alphabet books: They have been used for a long time to help children identify familiar sounds, letters and objects. One kind of it is used for young children and the other for older ones which contains numerous objects to develop their observation and discussion skills.

3) Counting books: As alphabet books, they are used for children in different degrees of difficulty and are often used for educational scopes, like one-to-one correspondence and counting sequentially from one to five.

4) Concept books: They appear in different levels of difficulty for young children in different levels of understanding to help them understand both easy concepts (such as ''black'' and ''square'') and more abstract ones (such as ''conjunctions'', ''synonyms'').

5) Wordless books: They contain various degrees of detail and plot complexity and therefore are for children of different ages and reading levels.

6) Easy-to-read books: Are designed to be read by young children in their beginning reading skills.

Children's picture book stories are educational texts in at least 2 respects. On the one hand, Meek (1988) long ago pointed out that good children’s literature provides implicit lessons in literacy for readers. Meek exemplifies by showing how even an apparently extremely simple illustration book may make such pertinent choices in what it depicts and how it does so, and in what it says and how words relate to images, that it will have an important agentive role in teaching children about reading. On the other hand, ilustration book stories are powerful ideological tools in their social function of 'naturalizing', prevailing values about childhood, family and home. For example, children’s books in English, sibling warfare is constructed as 'normal', while the repetitive visual presentation of certain forms of play or certain idealized settings endorses these as uniquely appropriate for the experience of childhood. Whether our concern, then, is with initial literacy or more 'critical' literacy, we need to understand the way meanings can be created visually and verbally.

4.3. Translating picture books

In picture books some parts of the story are conveyed through the illustrations, and words are kept silent in this respect. There are cases in which illustrations and words act in a unique dimension to transfer the meaning. But in other cases, what illustrations say is not what depicted in words and this is the reason why Nodelman (2005) describes illustration books as being 'inherently ironic'. This is a case of the relation between the words and illustrations in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

When translating illustration/picture books, the translator should pay attention to the direction of the relationship between words and illustrations to make a faithful interpretation of the multisemiotic source language text. Also as Oittinen (2000) says, in translation where parts contribute to the whole, the illustrator’s interpretation of the story should be taken into consideration. Sometimes it is necessary to convert the message of illustrations into words for the readability of the target text to be achieved.

[…] other translated picture book texts by Bruna that are part of the larger study that includes this paper, several of the translated texts show signs of exploitation in the relationship between words and images, hitch also proved to be the case in translated film texts analyzed by Baumgarten (VanMeerbergen, 2006: 15).

There are some situations in which the original illustrations are transferred in to the target text, and the translator should be wary about the unfamiliar and cultural aspects or strangeness of the illustrations in translating for the young readers. Provided that the tolerance of strangeness in young readers is measured, the translator can decide more easily whether to simply transfer the source language material to keep the flow of reading or to seek a way to make the strange source language input more tangible for the target text reader. O’Sullivan (2005) defines "strangeness" as what is not yet familiar to the readers in the process of acquiring basic experience and knowledge of the world around them. There are 2 opposite results gained in the problem of the tolerance of strangeness in children:

Tiina Puurtinen, who has studied the readability of two Finnish translations of L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz, observes that tolerance for strangeness is much lower in children’s literature than in books for adults, which makes readability as a whole a key issue within translating for children (Puurtinen quoted in Oittinen, 2003: 33)

However, as Oittinen (2000) says, the results of Puurtinen may be changed through translation situations such as cultures, books, children and child image, and hence this result is not an unyielding rule. The other result obtained from the problem is done by Saif (1995, in O’Sullivan 2005) who puts forward that the observations of a publisher promoting Swedish children’s literature in the Arabic-speaking area have showed that children are not frustrated by an unknown or foreign setting, because their main attention is focused on the action of the plot and that the child’s imagination is not constrained by cultural limits. In the case of the researcher’s study, as would be discussed in detail in related paragraphs, the problem lies not only in strangeness of the terms but also on the cultural and connotative aspects they depict as sign, which should be necessarily interpreted in order to yield meaning. On the importance of the strange cultural items in translation O’Sullivan (2005: 82) asserts:

The representational aspects of a foreign culture (time, place, natural conditions, customs, history, the cultural heritage) may be less disruptive than the norms and attitudes of a source text that do not coincide with those of the target culture. It is the conceptual elements of a foreign culture that make a text seem particularly ‘foreign’ and thus harder to communicate. The more ‘foreign’ a text is in this way, the lower are the chances that it will be translated at all.

O'Sullivan says that the status of the source language is a determining factor in cutting or adapting the foreign elements; the lower the status of a text, the more freely it is treated.

4.4. Concluding remarks

In every process of publishing literary works, there are different individuals who contribute in providing the best product. An 'author' who writes what he aims at and the 'editor' who reads and edits the text. Considering a book to contain images, it is the job of an 'art director' who should select an illustrator who can understand the text in the same style as that of the author's. The 'illustrator' hands the art director a dummy and they discuss over the appropriateness of the pictures in accordance to the text. The unity of all elements including visuals is the job of the art director. If the text to be published is a translated one, 'translator' comes in to the process too.

Every act of translation consists of embracing many dimensions of the translation situation. These dimensions, most importantly among all, are culture (including culture-specific, visual and signs-linguistic) and situation ( the receptor audience). The translator considering these dimensions may determine the best way to communicate with the intended audience. One group of audience, to whom much attention should be paid, represents children who have specific expectations of the literature they read. Mostly for younger ones, children’s literature is multi semiotic, i.e. images cooperate with words in conveying the meaning. The translation of pictures in which specific signs of source language should be 'identified' as significant, is a hard job as some signs are culture-specific and also not always the interpretation of the illustrator is the same as what the author has intended. In addition translators should have some knowledge on art, as illustration books are mixture of art and words. Not only the visual signs are important considering in children’s literature but also linguistic signs are used and are crucial in translation, which may emit culture as well. Translators, competent in the task of translation should adopt strategies, in both linguistic and visual aspects, which suit the intended target text reader. In translating illustration books, the act of translation is aided by some art directors who are specialized in both literature and pictures creating and have the job of identifying reversible aspects of the source text into the digestible aspects of target text.

5. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: The Romanian Translations of Lewis Carroll's Masterpiece

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll is a book that delighted me since childhood, and this is the main reason why I have chosen to study it closely. The story is simple: Alice enters the realm of fantasy, where everything is possible. The unmatched talent of Lewis Carroll is to use this "open door" to demonstrate, in an ingenious and subtle way, the fragile difference between dream and reality, between the absurd and logical, without losing the naturalness, the spontaneity and the freshness of the story. No matter how often I read this book and about this book, there is something new to discover every time.

Oliver Lansley (2015), creative director and co-writer of two stage adaptations of Lewis Carroll's story Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, reveals some curious facts about Alice and Carroll, that are not very known:

1) Alice's character was based on a real-life little girl named Alice Liddell. She was in fact not a blonde as illustrated in the book, but a brunette. The real life Alice has been portrayed in fiction almost as many times as the fictional one!

2) The tree that is said to have inspired the Cheshire Cat's tree, stands in the garden behind Alice's home at Christ Church College, Oxford.

3) The Mock Turtle soup is real! It was a popular dish in Victorian times, created as a Cheaper version of green turtle soup. It was made from various odd parts of a calf, such as brains, head and hoof.

4) After reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Queen Victoria, having loved the book, suggested that Carroll dedicate his next book to her! And so, his next work, An Elementary Treatise on Determinants, With Their Application to Simultaneous Linear Equations and Algebraic Equations, was presented to the Queen – perhaps not quite what she'd had in mind…

5) Lewis Carroll's real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. His pseudonym is an Anglicization of Ludovicus, the Latin version of ''Lutwige'', and the Irish surname Carroll, which bares great resemblance to the Latin forbear of ''Charles'', Carolus.

6) Lewis Carroll suffered from a rare neurological disorder that causes strange hallucinations and affects the size of visual objects, which can make the sufferer feel bigger or smaller than they are – a huge theme of the book. The disease, first discovered by the English psychiatrist John Todd in 1955, was later named Alice in Wonderland Syndrome. It was also known as Todd's syndrome.

7) The novel was banned in China in 1931, on the grounds that ''animals should not use human language''.

8) In 1890 Lewis Carroll released a shortened version of Alice's adventures in Wonderland, for smaller children, aged ''from nought to five''. It includes 20 of John Tenniel's illustrations from the original book coloured, enlarged and, in some cases, revised.

It’s sometimes said that Lewis Carroll’s Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was the origin of all later children’s literature, and I’m inclined to agree. There were books for children before 1865, but they were almost all written to make a moral point. Good children behave like this; bad children behave like that, and they are punished for it, and serve them right. In Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, for the first time, we find a realistic child taking part in a story whose intention was entirely fun. Both children and adults loved them at once, and have never stopped doing so. The story is as fresh and clever and funny today as it was a hundred and fifty years ago.

5.1. How was Alice's Adventures in Wonderland born, almost 151 years ago?

Almost 151 years ago, on July 4, 1862, a young mathematician, Charles Dodgson – better known under the name Lewis Carroll – embarked on a boat with a small group, with the intention of reaching Godstow – a small town near Oxford – for a picnic with tea and cakes on the river. Along with Carroll there were: Reverend Robinson Duckworth and three younger sisters of his good friend, Harry Liddell – Edith (8 years), Alice (10 years) and Lorina (13 years). Tasked with the mood of the three young women, Dodgson figured a story about a whimsical world, full of fantastic characters, where the protagonist's name is Alice. Alice Liddell was so fascinated by the story, that she asked Dodgson to write down on paper for her. He complied with her desire, and after some time, he sent her a manuscript entitled, "The Adventures of Alice Underground". The manuscript has been sent to George MacDonald, a model for Dogson, who tested it in the best way possible: he read it to his own children, who were hopelessly in love with the story. Encouraged, Dodgson revised the whole story for publication, changing the title in the one that everybody knows – "Alice in Wonderland" – and adding the famous scene of tea and a new character, Kitty Cheshire, which led to doubling the number of pages compared to the original version, sent to Alice Liddell.

In 1865, John Tenniel realized the illustrations for the first version of the book. In connection with this collaboration, Martin Gardner tells a funny anecdotal in his book The Annotated Alice (1959: 35):

Drawing Tenniel's Alice is performed by the image of Alice Liddell, who had dark hair, cut short with bangs. Carroll sent to the drawer a photography of Mary Hilton Badcock, another girl, recommending him to use it as a model. If Tenniel followed the advice or not is debatable. Failing to do that, is suggested by rows below excerpts from a letter that Carroll wrote shortly after the book was published …

In the letter that Lewis Carroll published (1865), he said about John Tenniel that:

Mr. Tenniel is the only artist who drew for me and who refused resolutely to use a model, saying that he does not need it and that rather than pestering him, it would be better to solve a math problem. I dare to say he was wrong when he refused to draw after a model, resulting a total disproportionate Alice, having a too big head and too small feet.

5.2. About Mr. John Tenniel and the illustrations for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Sir John Tenniel (1820 – 1914), an English illustrator and political cartoonist for the Punch magazine, made the illustrations for both Alice in Wonderland books. For many aspects of the illustrations, he got precise instructions from author Charles Dogson. Therefore, we can be fairly sure that the pictures give an accurate representation of how Dodgson imagined the characters and the events.

It is said that Dodgson had driven Tenniel almost crazy by providing him with so much details and instructions, and therefore he almost turned down the request when he was asked to illustrate the sequel. However, whether this really is true, is debatable. Surviving letters seem to suggest Dodgson was quite willing to accept the artist’s ideas, and in the illustrations the typical style of Tenniel is recognizable. He may even have added his own subtle references in the illustrations.

The influence Tenniel had on Dodgson is illustrated by the fact that Dodgson recalled the first edition of his book, only because Tenniel expressed dissatisfaction about the quality of the printing of the pictures. Also, Dodgson dropped an entire chapter from his book on Tenniel’s suggestion.

It did, however, indeed take long for Tenniel to accept the job of illustrating Through the Looking Glass and what Alice found there, probably because he had a very busy schedule. Dodgson therefore was forced to consider other illustrators. Fortunately, none of these plans came through and finally, after two and a half years of persuading, Tenniel did agree to illustrate the second book as well, being it only ''in the time he could find''.

5.2.1. Creating the illustrations

According to Rodney Engen, Tenniel’s biographer, his method for creating the illustrations of the Alice books was the same as the method he used for Punch, namely preliminary pencil drawings, further drawings in ‘ink and Chinese white’ to simulate the wood  engraver’s line, then transference to the wood-block by the use of tracing paper. Then the drawings were engraved to the highest standards, in this instance by the Dalziel Brothers.

Carroll appears to have ordered many (expensive!) changes to them. The final stage in the reproduction process was to make electrotype plates from the wood-engravings, using them as masters. The electrotype plates were used for the actual printing.

Because of the difficult process of creating wood-blocks involved, sometimes concessions had to be made as to the overall design of the illustration. For example, a character might be moved into a different position – which probably happened with the ape in the illustration of the Dodo with the thimble. And, once wood had been removed, it could not be put back without a great deal of difficulty. A small number of Alice wood-blocks have had alterations or repairs made to them, that are in some cases detectable from the proofs which have been taken directly from the blocks. For example, the wood-block of the Hatter at the trial scene, the section showing the Hatter’s cup with a piece bitten out, had to be repaired and re-engraved.

In 1981, the original wood-blocks were discovered in a bank vault where they had been deposited by the publisher. They are now at the British Library.

Tenniel made some mistakes in his illustrations: In chapter 1 we are told: “[…] she found herself in a long low hall, which was lit up by a row of lamps hanging from the roof.” In Tenniel’s illustration of Alice and the White Rabbit running through this hall, no lamps are visible however.

Alice and the White Rabbit

If we compare Tenniel’s first drawing of the White Rabbit with his second one, we observe that in the second one the Rabbit’s vest is checked just like his jacket.

picture 1 picture 2

When Alice meets the Cheshire Cat sitting in a tree, he vanishes and reappears again at once. When Alice walks on, he reappears again on a branch. This time, he disappears more slowly, on Alice’s request. However, the picture of this slow vanishing shows the Cheshire Cat sitting in exactly the same tree as he was in when Alice met him before walking on.

picture 1 picture 2

In two illustrations, the Hatter’s bow tie has a pointed end on his left. In a later illustration, the pointed end is on his right.

picture 1 picture 2

If we compare the frontispiece illustration with the second illustration of the King of Hearts during court, there are several inconsistencies: the crown is different, spectacles have appeared, the orb and sceptre have disappeared, and the court officials have fallen asleep.

picture 1 picture 2

In spite of these small mistakes, John Tenniel's illustrations for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland have taken their place among the most famous literary illustrations ever made.

5.3. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll is greater than any other motivational book!

The narrative of the story Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll was integrated in the popular culture, inspiring numerous artistic projects. Although the author has devoted particular story of a child, Alice Liddell, the text became guide all those who are preparing to become adults. Illustrated teachings are needed by every anxious child across the adult's world. For this reason, I will share with you the lessons that I have acquired chasing the rabbit with jacket and watch.

Keeps curiosity. Unfortunately, maturation tends to reverse a prerequisite knowledge, namely curiosity. Adults turn into sullenly and bored creatures, that make you wonder why they no longer see the world's wonders. Once activated, curiosity must be kept, because it does not anticipate the future, but promises surprises. Without it, Alice would not have access the underground land, and she would have remained simply to nap in the garden. Curiosity fosters growth and replaces the fear generated by the unknown world of adults.

Find the logic of the absurd. For a child it is handy to ignore normality. Many of the rules of our world may seem to him/her absurd and boring. Because we accept and we adapt to the absurd of ''Wonderland'', we observe that the story is nothing else but a parody of the adult world. Before adulthood we laugh, because we know that we will participate in it soon. Absurdity has also a logic, so that the order can be found even where it seems to patronize anarchy and madness. Finding the logic of the absurd, it is much easier to us to adapt to confusing situations and to overcome them unaffected.

Accept your change. Life has certain stages, but a child is disoriented when he goes through them. They try to slow their growth or conversely, to hurry it up. Caterpillar teaches them that change is not at all frightening. Who else would know better about metamorphosis, if not this future butterfly? You can know who you were in the morning, but to change several times during the day, up to completely forget who you are. No matter how much panic would cause partial loss of identity, does it scare me that I do not know to answer the question who I am? We grow up all the time, so we can only be sure on ourselves, learning to manage changes.

The language is insufficient. We constantly enrich our vocabulary. In Wonderland we get used to various meanings that a word acquires. We are dealing with riddles, rhetorical questions and confusion generated by homonymy. Ironies and sophistry put us on another level of communication, a more familiar one for adults. We encounter many plans of a discourse that it seems impossible to convey the message properly. We learn to be playful or demanding with language forms, in our attempt to translate our inner world.

Behave nicely. Duchess gives an inadequate example than a child should be educated, because she is a violent person. Parents and teachers teach us how to live according to others and induce us the need of membership in certain social groups. We believe that ideas about education help for a better life. However, the story shows us how funny can be sometimes these conditions for participation in the world. We do not always need geography and Latin lessons mechanically stored. Among many pretentious labels, we get bored exactly as our character. Sometimes we are practicing courtesy, sometimes we consider society a circus of the rules of social conduct.

It's okay to be a little mad, we're all so. I learned not to judge others, no matter as eccentric as their behaviour would be. Each manifestation of personality is fascinating. Mad Hatter, as the personification of madness, shows us a way to be privileged, because it ignores normality in which we thought before reading this. He introduces himself with an exaggerated cheerfulness that he masks in songs and dance. We accept inclusive our own madness, manifested in thought or in speech. Eventually, life is where we practice the roles of the most curious.

Face authority. The rules often seem out of control, and the judgment is not always right. Including between children and adults, there will always be a relation of inequality, so you must learn to handle any situation. The laws take the form of mandatory and they are accompanied by great expectations from sovereigns. In case of violation, the penalties can be disproportionate, as the characters in the story are threatened with beheading. Often, citizens are mindless obedience. Alice teaches children to say aloud how much nonsense exist in all of these. In some situations, children should have the courage to show the injustice. Immorality appears naked like the Emperor, whom people are afraid to say the truth.

Follow your own advice. Alice gave herself good advice, although rarely she followed it. We all offer recipes for life, pretending to be followed. Instead, we can not trust ourselves that we'll turn theory into practice. The most important is to weigh what we believe to be right and to allow ourselves to make mistakes, because these are part of our transformation. Based on the experience, it follows that the advice that we give ourselves to become clear rules, which ones we can follow with confidence.

Just as the Duchess says in the story, "everything has a moral if you find it." On the one hand, Lewis Carroll used young audience with bizarre maturity. On the other hand, adult became children again, making fun of their apparent seriousness. In fact, all adults are nothing else but children disguised in adults. By following the Wonderland's model, life becomes a game in which to be crazy is a norm. Where there is a game, time becomes eternity, and you can think of in the morning to at least six impossible things, because the only thing that remains to appoint reality is imagination. Alice in Wonderland has given us a world turned upside down, so that the world that we belong, suddenly became accessible, enabling us to play at will, fearless.

5.4. Alice's Adventures in Romanian language

At the time of publication (much less at the time of writing) Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) Lewis Carroll does not suspect the brilliant and constant success (both from the public and critics) that the book will have. Although critical comments from that era are rather reserved (moderate laudatory, in the best case) – perhaps because the text is "enlisted" without hesitation in the minor system of "children's literature" – the destiny of the first Alice's Adventures book is considered to be exceptional, immediately after launching it on the market. Being a best-seller in the UK (25,000 copies sold in the first five years, 86,000 by 1898, when Charles Dodgson dies), the story of the amazing adventures of Alice begins its international career by author's caring, who issues the first translations (in French and German – in 1869; in Italian – 1872), by hiring himself translators and watching closely the process of transposing the original text, in those languages. In the eighth decade of the nineteenth century, also appear some translations into Swedish, Danish, Dutch and Russian. Then there appeared tens and hundreds versions of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, in all languages ​​of the world (even in Latin and Esperanto), Carroll's fiction assuring her own (along with the Bible and Shakespeare) a permanent place in the forefront of the most often translated books in the world.

In Romania, Alice arrives in the twentieth century, after more than 70 years after the book's launch. From 1939 to 1997, there are six translations of the first Alice's Adventures and only three – in 1939, 1971 and 1977 – of the second, because the second one, Alice through the Looking Glass, put infinitely more linguistic problems. The two books have appeared in tandem only in 1939, in one volume, and in 1997, as twins volumes .

The first three attempts to familiarize the Romanian receiver with this Lewis Carroll's texts, are absolutely deplorable in every aspect. Graphical presentation is, in each case, very modest and illustrations beneath criticism: dull (often inept), free styled and inexpressive; otherwise, no one recognizes his/her responsibility of the errors. Only in the 1939 edition, there is a signature enigmatically Rab. In the 1947 edition, illustrations are obviously realized by two or more different people, among which collaboration or, at least, artistic compatibility, is completely missing. So it is that, in the same book, only a few pages away, Alice shows when a robust and ruddy peasant , with long hair, gathered in ponytail, when precious ingenue, with a bob haircut, with studied and artificial attitudes. The illustrations are placed on the page without any system, and sometimes mistakenly placed in the context of the narrative.

Beside all these signs confusing and dissuasive, translations themselves are added, which are of a very poor quality: full of clumsiness, with uninspired equivalents, inconsistent and with plenty of language errors.

In N. Ionescu's translation into Romanian from 1947, inexplicably, the Gryphon becomes … Scorpion. The Mock Turtle is the "turtle-headed calf" without any explanation, likely culinary, that could clarify the situation or the wordplay, or, in other translations it is simply, called "The false turtle" but the image, copy of the original illustration signed by John Tenniel, makes a mess of things, presenting, however, the character with calf head by not providing a minimum explanation required.

In B. Eugen's Romanian translation from 1998, the Caterpillar is a lady caterpillar in the text, while the illustration is assigned a clothing and accessories that define a man.

In such unfortunate "mirrors", the text can not be understood, but trivialized, distorted, reduced to a hypostasis that is not worthy to be read. Low triage of that books "solves" somewhat the difficult problem of a possible contact, in the best case insignificant, of the Romanian receptor to these unsuccessful translations. We still hope that not many were those who knew Lewis Carroll exclusively through these dull channels, graceless and fun, except for the involuntary, only that our hope, drastically decreases and we are disappointed again, because, is re-launched on the market in 1999, as endorsed by the publisher Regis, just one of the incriminated translations – the one signed by Nora Galin, who, as consolation, scheduled or not, is at least accompanied, this time, of Tenniel's drawings.

The first honourable Romanian translation is Elizabeth Gălăteanu's Alice in Wonderland, from 1958. The famous conversation on the curriculum in which ''The False Turtle'' is studying, conveys only partially the puns that arrived at maximum intensity, so that the Romanian receiver can accede only slightly in the original spiritual verve:

,,[…] -Profesorul era un învățător bătrân căruia noi îi spuneam Țestosul… .

– De ce îi spuneați Țestosul dacă nu era țesos? întrebă Alice''. Confusion arises because in English language, ,,țestos'' (tortoise) and ,,ne învăța'' (taught us) have a similar pronunciation and the Mock Turtle confuse these words. The similarity between the English words: reeling and reading (reading – citire); writhing and writing (writing – scriere); ambition and (addition – adunare), distraction and decreasing (decreasing – scădere) and the coined word uglification, also creates confusion.

It is not clear what would be "a cross Caucus" or why lobsters became crabs, as unjustified is transforming the name Lacie (anagram for Alice) to Lucie. The attempt to recreate a character's name ambivalence – Bill from Chapter IV ( in Romanian language Bill / bilețel) when " The Rabbit sent a note (note translation into Romanian is bilețel) on the horn" – is rather forced and disturbs somehow relational network, even if it changes character's genre, along with the name: Bill, the gardener and the handyman who lives around the White Rabbit's house becomes in the translation ''The flower'', confusion occurring due to the fact that ''The Rabbit sends a flower". Overall, however, this is a good translation and allows, indeed to the Romanian's reader to understand the story. An advantage of this editorial variant is represented by the black and white colour illustrations plus 12 colour drawings, one for each chapter, made by the graphic designer Mabel Lucie Attwell. Even if Mabel Lucie Attwell is counting on entry in a register which, stylistically, it's pretty unlikely to come into line with the text of Carroll, illustrations are professionally made and with evident concern to serve the story, and their cuddly grace is probably more appreciated by sentimental people.

Until the newest Romanian version from 2007 by Mirella Acsente, which is the most faithful, literally speaking, to the original and which is accompanied by Tenniel's classic illustrations, the landmark translations of both Alice books belong to Frida Papadache. Her translation has a quite remarkable coherence and fluency, it has stylistic unity and manages to communicate largely the crazy charm that vibrates the fictional world proposed by Lewis Carroll. Finding the right tone is almost magical, which, just like in prototype, does not deviate neither in the gracious register, nor in the false and exaggerated one. The atmosphere created by the exceptional text and the images that are connected to it – all the characters, realistically transposed, have shadows with abstract shapes, that are, actually, projections of chess pieces they represent – is one of spiritual elevation. The book's format, the quality paper used, the font used, the chromatic sumptuousness of the cover, are details that places Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in the space of illustrated books, that are different in editorial design by the English editions – usually with a reduced format, communicating indirectly that it is a book "to read" not "to browse". This Romanian version is a winning bet from all points of view, but we have only to regret that, for reasons quite obscure, the copies in circulation are very rare – although, this time, a re-edition would be more than welcome!

It deserves a separate discussion in the context of the Romanian translation of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, a book published in 1998 in Chișinău, which is generously broadcast in Romania. The format is close to the original, it has Tenniel's illustrations, the cover is a lively and attractive collage of images (selected from Tenniel's "portfolio") on a coloured background, suggesting a space of logical, physical and geometrical enigmas. The book has a quality graphical presentation. It also includes a useful chronological table and a selection of critical acclaim, signed by Walter de la Mare, Virginia Woolf, Martin Gardner. With that, unfortunately, it goes off the list of merits of this book, whose weak point is precisely the substance: translation. The first obstacle for a Romanian reader is the abundance of regionalisms, that doesn't fit with the precious and ceremoniously rationality from character's replicas. So, the distribution of this translation outside Moldavia's borders is a monumental mistake, because in a first place it neglects and ignores, an essential aspect of linguistic communication. Secondly, beyond that dialect aspect, this is a failed translation of which Nina Ischimji, respectively Constantin Dragomir (who is also caretaker of this edition) are guilty. The initial meanings are often truncated by approximate or wrong equivalences, caused by a superficial knowledge of English. We say with regret that such a book is not of any help in promoting Lewis Carroll's citadel, because it designs a crooked and clumsy reflex.

5.5. A comparison between Eugen B. Marian's translation (1998) and Mirella Acstente's translation (2007) with the original Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865)

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll is not a mere fiction for children. This classic story is full of philosophy and truisms. The absurdity of the plot is exciting, but the basic message will leave a lasting impression to you, an impression that will remain forever in your mind.

In what follows, I will make a comparison between the original story Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll and two Romanian translations of the story, that of Eugen B. Marian from 1946 and that of Mirella Acsente from 2007. The aspects that I will bring into discussion and I will compare, are puns, phrases, sayings and translation mistakes.

1)

In chapter VI – Pig and Pepper – we encounter this discussion between Alice and the Duchesse , about the Cheshire cat. In the original version of the book, Carroll uses Cheshire cat, having in mind the English phrase ''To grin like a Cheshire Cat''. (translation into Romanian: ''a rânji cu gura până la urechi''). The first appearance of this phrase in literature was in the 18th century. A classical dictionary of the vulgar tongue (1788) by Francis Grose ( The Second Edition, Corrected and Enlarged, London) contains the following entry: ''CHESHIRE CAT. He grins like a Cheshire cat – it is said of anyone who shows his teeth and gums in laughing.'' Eugen B. Marian doesn't take into account this English expression, maybe that's why he uses the verb ,,a surâde'' in spite of ,,a rânji'', leading to an excessive removal of the original text. Instead, Mirella Acsente not only uses in her translation the verb ,,a rânji'' but she also explains the phrase in footnotes.

2).

In the same sixth chapter in the discussion between Alice and the Cheshire cat we encounter the names: the Hatter and the March Hare. At an overview, the two translations seem to be all right, they even resemble each other, but what sets them apart is the fact that Mirella Acsente's translation explains these names. The Mad Hatter and the March Hare are names based on the fact that in England, there are the phrases: ''as mad as a Hatter'' (translation into Romanian: nebun ca un pălărier) and ''as mad as a March Hare'' (translation into Romanian: nebun ca un iepure de martie).

3).

We encounter this question in Chapter VI, in the discussion between Alice and the Cheshire Cat. We can observe that none of translations doesn't reproduce the idea from the original text. More than this, none of the Romanian translations doesn't keep the patronymic used in the original version of the story. Even if the Romanian translators use other words than ''fig'' (smochină) and ''pig'' (porc), it is admirable that they keep the rhyme.

4).

The question ''Who Stole the Tarts?'' represents the title of the Chapter XI. As we can see, Eugen B. Marian uses the noun prăjiturile in spite of tartele when translating the noun tarts. The English translation for prăjitură is cake. The use the word-for-word translation is not usually recommended. here, translating tars by prăjiturile is a mistake. To demonstrate this mistake, I will define the nouns cake and tart.

A Cake is a sweet dessert baked in the oven. The modern cakes, especially those with multiple layers, usually contain a mixture of flour, sugar, eggs and butter or oil, all mixed with another liquid (usually milk or water) and leavening agents (such as yeast or baking powder). They can contain flavour ingredients, such as fruit purees, nuts, dried or candied fruits; often adds many substances which substitute these primary ingredients. Cakes are often filled with fruits, cream or butter, and decorated with marzipan or candied fruits.

Meanwhile, a tart is a baked dish consisting of a filling over a pastry, with an open top not covered with pastry. The pastry is usually a short crust pastry; the feeling may be sweet or savoury, though modern tarts are usually fruit-based, sometimes with custard. So, the nouns cake and tart denote two distinct sweet products and that's why Eugen B. Marian's translation prăjiturile, it is not correct in this context.

5).

In chapter IX – The Mock Turtle’s Story – appears the above saying, in the context of Alice's discussion with the Duchess: ''[…] flamingos and mustard both bite. And the moral of that is – 'Birds of a feather flock together'.'' Both translators try to transfer this English saying by replacing it with a Romanian one. Mirella Acsente's attempt is successful, because she uses a well-known Romanian proverb. Eugen B. Marian could match the words better, by using the well-known Romanian proverb ,,Spune-mi cu cine te-nsoțești, ca să-ți spun cine ești.''

6).

We can find these phrases in the ninth chapter of the book. At an overview, the two translations seem to be all right. They even resemble each other, but what sets them apart is the fact that Mirella Acsente's translation adds some extra details in footnotes, in order to explain the provenance of this phrase. She says that the above mentioned phrase is a paraphrasing of the saying ''Take care of the pence and the pounds will take care of themselves'' (translated into Romanian: ,,Fii econom cu paraua și galbenul se va păzi singur'').

7)

We can find the nouns porpoise and purpose in Chapter X, in the dialogue between Alice and the Mock Turtle, in which the use of these two homophones creates confusion. The Mock Turtle refers to a ''porpoise'', a sea creature that he wants to go with on a journey. From the Mock Turtle's speech, Alice infers that the Mock Turtle wants to say that she doesn't know the ''purpose'' a certain sea creature wants to go with on a journey. The Mock Turtle is offended by Alice's remark, and he let us know that he really refers to a ''porpoise'' and not a ''purpose''. This discourse is ambiguous, and the ambiguity results from the fact that ''porpoise'' may be replaced by ''purpose''. Both sentences are intelligible, but their meanings are not the same.

Neither of the two Romanian translators uses homophones as Romanian equivalents for ''porpoise'' and ''purpose''. Eugen B. Marian replaces the homophones with the homonyms ''leu'' and ''leu''. In Romanian language, the noun leu has two different meanings: leu – as a wild animal and leu – as the Romanian national currency. Even if Eugen B. Marian uses homonyms instead of homophones, he keeps the ambiguity transmitted by the author in the original version of the story.

In her translation, Mirella Acsente doesn't use homophones or homonyms for ''porpoise'' and ''purpose'', but she tries to keep some rhyme by using two short nouns: ''scop'' and ''porc''.

8)

The dialogue between Alice and the Mouse from the third Chapter, also creates confusion in Alice's mind. Instead of perceiving sad ''tale'', Alice perceives sad ''tail''. That's why she imagines a ''tale'' written'' in the shape of a ''tail''. Lewis Carroll came up with a solution, writing a story in a shape of a mouse's tail moving in a zigzag.

In the original version of the story, ''tail'' and ''tale'' are two homophones. In both Romanian translations, the translators used the homonyms ''coadă'' – as part of mouse's body and ''coadă'' – as capăt, final, in order to keep the ambiguity transmitted by Lewis Carroll.

9)

Lewis Carroll likes playing with words in an original manner, creating puns. In the dialogue between the Duchess and Alice from the Chapter nine, the Duchess creates an original pun, using two lexical items mine. The first one is a noun referring to the place the mineral substances are extracted from. The second mine is a possessive pronoun related to the individual who speaks, which is put in opposition with the possessive pronoun yours. The ambiguity is created by the words more and less. We don't know if the Duchess refers to a tunnel dug into the ground or if she only likes to find unusual combinations of words.

Translating puns is a hard work. As a proof we have the two Romanian translations of the above mentioned pun. Both Romanian translators try to keep the pun, but Mirella Acsente's translation is more successfully, because she keeps the ambiguity created by the words more and less.

5.6. The comparison of John Tenniel's illustrations and Mabel Lucie Attwell's illustrations from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Mirella Acsente's Romanian translation of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2007) keeps the original illustrations, that of Tenniel's, while the translation of Eugen B. Marian (1998) uses the illustrations made by Mabel Lucie Atwell, which are of much lower quality than the originals and which contain many mistakes.

In what follows, I will make a comparison between the original illustrations used in Mirella Acsente's translation from 2007 and those of Mabel Lucie Atwell, used Eugen B. Marian's translation from 1998.

In chapter 5, named Advice from a Caterpillar translated by Eugen B. Marian – ,,SFATURI DIN PARTEA UNEI OMIZI'', the Romanian translator talks about a lady caterpillar, while in the illustration we can see a caterpillar using accessories that define a gentleman.

Illustration by Mabel Lucie Atwell

Just a few pages away, the image with the caterpillar reappears, but we can see that this one no longer resembles the one before. In addition, Alice looks like a little boy, wearing shorts and not a dress, as in the other images or as in Tenniel's original illustrations.

Illustration by Mabel Lucie Atwell Illustration by John Tenniel

Below we see two pictures depicting the character Queen of Hearts. We can observe that the original illustration, that of Tenniel's is of a higher quality than the other one, that of Mabel Lucie Atwell, in which the Queen of Hearts looks more like a witch.

Illustration by Mabel Lucie Atwell Illustration by John Tenniel

In these two pictures we can see exactly what I mentioned above: the quality of Tenniel's illustration is higher than Mabel Lucie Atwell's illustration. In the first picture the ''pretty dog'' looks more like a lamb, having no facial expression, while, in the second picture the dog looks extremely expressive and the illustration shows the undeniable Tenniel's talent.

Illustration by Mabel Lucie Atwell Illustration by John Tenniel

These two pictures illustrate the scene in which Alice meets the Cheshire Cat. The Cheshire Cat is the cat of the Duchess. Alice meets it when she leaves the Duchess house, and finds it in a tree. It constantly grins and can disappear and reappear whenever it likes. Sometimes it disappears and leaves its grin behind. While in Tenniel's picture we can see the cat's grin, and it is quite scary; in Atwell's picture we can see just a cute kitty smiling. Maybe that's why Eugen B. Marian translates the noun ''grin'' with the Romanian nouns ,, surâs'' and ''zâmbet'' instead of ,,rânjet''.

Illustration by Mabel Lucie Atwell Illustration by John Tenniel

5.7. Concluding remarks

In this case study I offered an overall image of the Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, of its author Lewis Carroll and of its illustrator John Tenniel. Then I have illustrated, using examples from the Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the importance of reading this book by children and what they can learn from it.

I tried to provide an overview of many Romanian translations of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by arranging them in the order of their quality, while presenting their shortcomings or strengths. Then I put two Romanian translations, made by of Eugen B. Marian (1998) and Mirella Acsente (2007) face to face with the original Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I compared the two translations in terms of translation itself and of the illustrations used, showing that the translator's skills make a successful translation.

Theoretically, it is obvious that the existence of several translations of the same text is a good thing; the reader may face and can choose; he/she can privilege a translation or another. In practice, however, especially considering the concrete circulation in Romania of the texts here under discussion, the simultaneous and unreported / unrated critic presence of such translations, can only generate a confusion or reservation – even a refusal from the reader. But, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is not a ''some''. It is a major communication gate with Europe, and with our integration with the whole world – over borders, economic political, social, linguistic or cultural challenges.

Conclusion

The primary aims of this paper have been to cover as many aspects of the field of children's literature and its translation as possible, to give an overall view of the subject and to provide a useful reference work. Although an attempt has been made to give a rounded view of the field, it was of course not possible to include every facet of the subject, as the wide variety of elements, factors and views put it beyond the scope of a work of this length.

The prevailing question in the genre would seem to be: ''What makes a 'good' translation of a children's book?''. For reasons shown in this paper, this is a difficult, if not impossible, question to answer because of the multitude of conflicting influences and opinions.

Generally, every text bears the characteristics of the culture in which it was written. Transferring it to another culture means, adapting it in some way to the new environment. The contentious issue amongst theorists now is to what extent texts need to be modified. In the case of children's literature, the borders of adaptation are extended to different degrees by different adults (i.e. translators), according to their own personal image of childhood. This means that some translators will tend to include more explanation or to remove more cultural peculiarities, thus adapting the text to a greater extent than others.

The forth chapter has argued that to better understand how picture books work, so that we can be alerted both to the challenges they may present to children and the subtleties of the ways their creators use the visual medium and play it off against the verbal, we need to extend children's visual grammar to explore visual meaning choices at the discourse level. The analytical children’s picture book narratives framework provided here, then, is only a very partial one, but it is hoped that it provides useful tools for beginning to deconstruct these bi-modal narratives. By seeing more clearly how these texts mean what they do, we can facilitate reflection on the relative dependence of the narrative on its verbal component, on the demands any particular text makes of its readers, on the subtleties of the ways it might position readers to respond and on the ways interrelations between visual and verbal meaning indeed allow for meaning beyond that offered by either mode in isolation. These are all matters of great relevance to educators who use this material with young children, for whom it may be their entry into both literacy and literature and for whom the ‘transparency’ of visual meaning cannot be assumed. Teachers must make choices not only about what meanings will need to be made more explicit to children to facilitate understanding of these surprisingly sophisticated texts, but about the extent to which it will be valuable to alert young readers to the visual semiotic resources at an artist’s disposal and how these are being used to align readers with the narrative’s overall thematic significance.

A book written in the source language can be translated into target language by many translators. It is the case of the English story Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, which was translated into Romanian language by many Romanian translators. From 1939, when it arrives in Romania, after more than 70 years after the book's launch , the story Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was translated into Romanian by more than 10 translators, including N. Ionescu (1947), Elizabeth Gălățeanu (1958) Frida Papadache (1991), Eugen B. Marian (1998), Nina Ischimji (1998), Nora Galin (1999), and Mirella Acsente (2007). The first attempts to familiarize Romanian receiver with Lewis Carroll's texts, are absolutely deplorable in every aspect. The best translation is the newest one, that of Mirella Acsente, translation which also keeps the original illustrations of John Tenniel.

As yet, no theory for the translation of children's literature has been developed, although the need to put this subject area on a sound theoretical footing has frequently been expressed. It has to be asked, however, whether it is all possible to develop a generally applicable theory which addresses all the different sub-areas. It is possible to reconcile the many diverging aspects and the various forces in society within one single theory? This may be the reason why, thus far, no one theory has become established although several very useful approaches have been proposed.

It would seem necessary to expand research in several sub-areas of the field, generating results and solutions for each one and, thus, establishing an increasing set of ''sub-theories''. These contributions will still not have the status of a universal theory, but they will be valuable in helping to shed light on many ''dark corners'' that still exist. At the same time, they may help to raise the low prestige of children's literature and to give it an appropriate place in society.

Résumé

Les études de la traduction de la littérature pour les enfants est un très vaste champ de recherche, qui nécessite une analyse systématique des principaux aspects de la traduction de la littérature pour les enfants. Le but de ce travail dépasse les limites des études sur la littérature et la traduction des enfants disparates, soutiennent son statut de discipline distincte. Pour atteindre cet objectif, nous avons discuté des aspects les plus importants, des défis et des difficultés de la traduction de la littérature pour les enfants.

Bien que mon intention est de donner des directives pour la recherche qui pourraient être utiles pour les traducteurs dans le travail qu'ils accomplissent, je considère que les exemples de l'histoire Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Les Aventures d'Alice au Pays des Merveilles) par Lewis Carroll sont pertinentes pour les idées que je tiens à souligner.

L'approche scientifique confirme l'existence de grandes différences entre les deux langues et les cultures, entre la langue et la culture roumaine par rapport à la langue et la culture anglaise. À cet égard, la thèse met en évidence les différentes approches de la traduction de la littérature pour enfants en Roumanie en contraste avec ce qui se passe en Angleterre ou aux États-Unis. De mon point de vue, les deux productions littéraires pour les enfants, ceux des langues et cultures dominants et ceux des langues et des cultures dominées, devraient avoir la possibilité d'entrer en universalité.

Le premier chapitre, intitulé Les fondements de la traduction de la littérature pour les enfants, traite les plus importants aspects qui définissent la traduction de la littérature pour les enfants comme une nouvelle discipline académique. Tournant autour des enfants comme bénéficiaires directs de l'ensemble du processus de la traduction, la traduction de la littérature pour les enfants explore l'impact sur les futurs lecteurs. Les traducteurs de la littérature pour les enfants sont conscients des contraintes systémiques, en adaptant la traduction au développement interne des enfants et aux exigences externes. Pour ce faire, ils ont certains objectifs, et utilisent certaines méthodes de la traduction de la littérature pour enfants. Ils doivent également respecter certaines normes, afin de rendre le texte plus facile à comprendre pour les enfants. Quand un traducteur suppose qu'un certain paragraphe ne sera pas compris par un enfant, il est autorisé à apporter des modifications ou des suppressions, pour l'ajuster au niveau de compréhension approprié. Quand on parle de méthodes de traduction de la littérature pour les enfants, la classification de Amparo Hurtado Albir des méthodes de traduction, semble utile pour le traducteur, lors du transfert du texte de la langue source vers la langue cible.

Le deuxième chapitre, L'équivalence – un aspect important dans la traduction de la littérature pour les enfants, présente une analyse approfondie de la notion d'équivalence de différents points de vue, soulignant son influence sur les traductions de textes littéraires pour les enfants. La première partie du chapitre est consacrée à l'examen des points de vue sur le concept d'équivalence et les relations d'équivalence. La nature de l'équivalence est examinée en détail, et est donc la division entre l'équivalence comprise comme un concept empirique et l'équivalence comprise comme un concept théorique, conduisant à une nette préférence pour la première interprétation. En outre, mon intention est de démontrer que la traduction pour les enfants signifie garder les aspects les plus importants du texte original et la manipulation du texte avec une grande liberté, afin de répondre aux attentes des lecteurs. Le concept d'équivalence peut également être considérée comme une oscillation entre le formalisme et le dynamisme. Prétendre cela, je choisi de parler de la relation entre l'équivalence formelle et dynamique, analysée par Nida (1964), mettant en évidence la précision et la transposition caractéristiques pour l'équivalence formelle et l'adaptation représentative pour l'équivalence dynamique.

Le troisième chapitre intitulé La traduction des références culturelles dans les livres pour les enfants, vise à identifier les objets culturels spécifiques et leurs traductions dans la langue cible. En traduisant la littérature pour les enfants, le traducteur est conscient que l'un des objectifs de la traduction est de créer un lecteur multiculturel, qui peut avoir une perspective plus large sur les différentes cultures du monde. À cet égard, les références culturelles représentent une catégorie de biens culturels, parfois utilisé pour faire une allusion ou un commentaire ironique. Quand on parle de catégories culturelles, Newmark (1988: 95-102) endroits <<les mots culturels étrangers>> dans certaines catégories. Ces <<mots culturels étrangers>> peuvent être traduits soit en trouvant un équivalent dans la langue cible, ou en l'expliquant aux notes. Mon intention est de prouver que le faux problème de l'intraduisible de ces termes est effectivement causé par un manque de connaissances des techniques et des stratégies utilisées dans leur traduction dans la langue cible.

Le chapitre quatre – La relation texte – illustrations dans les livres pur les enfants – souligne l'importance des images dans les livres dédiés aux enfants. Les livres avec des images sont, à certains égards, essentiels pour la compréhension de l'historie par les enfants et pour garder leur intérêt pour la lecture. Les enfants très jeunes sont la catégorie de lecteurs le plus attirés par les images aux couleurs vives rencontrées dans les livres spécifiques à leur âge et à leur capacité de compréhension. Certains livres consacrés à cette catégorie d'enfants ne sont que des séries des images, auxquelles eux-mêmes peuvent les interpréter et créer leur propre histoire, ou elles peuvent être interprétées par leur parents. Certains livres d'images contient certains aspects clés de l'histoire qui sont convertis en images, et dans cette situation les mots ne sont pas nécessaires.

L'attention accordée aux images disparaît peu à peu, tandis que les enfants deviennent des lecteurs compétents. Les lecteurs débutants accordent leur attention aux images, et non pas au texte qui est lu. Dans la sphère contraire sont les lecteurs compétents, y compris les adultes, qui souvent porteront leur attention sur le texte et ignoreront les images. Dans un livre de qualité, à la fois du texte et des images jouent un rôle important dans la compréhension de tout le livre.

Derrière tout processus de publication de livres littéraires pour les enfants, il y a des gens qui contribuent à assurer l'édition des livres réussis. Cette <<équipe>> est composé par un auteur (ou plusieurs) qui exprime par écrit ce qu'il pense et un éditeur qui lit et édite le texte. Certains livres contiennent des images, donc il y a besoin de trouver un illustrateur qui est capable de comprendre le texte et de le transposer en images. Ce travail unifié de tous les éléments d'un livre, y compris les éléments visuels est fait par un administrateur. Et si le texte qui doit être publié est un texte traduit, le traducteur fait partie de ce processus complexe.

Enfin, le chapitre cinq est une étude détaillée du livre Alice's Adventures in Wonderland par Lewis Carroll, dont certains aspects sont illustrés et discutés dans les chapitres 2, 3 et 4 du présent document. Pour commencer, l'étude soulève plusieurs aspects importants de l'histoire Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, ainsi que le nom réel de l'auteur Lewis Carroll est en fait Charles Lutwidge Dodgson et que le caractère Alice est basé sur une vraie fille nommée Alice Linddell. Cette fille n'est pas blonde, comme dans les images du livre, mais elle est brune.

Ensuite, j'ai fait montrer les illustrations de Monsieur John Tenniel, qui représentent les illustrations originales du livre Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Alors il est remis en question le contexte dans lequel John Tenniel a accepté créer les illustrations de ce livre et quelques petites erreurs dans la création d'illustrations. En dépit de ces petites erreurs, les illustrations de John Tenniel ont été et restent les illustrations les plus réussies pour le livre Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

La prochaine question examinée dans ce chapitre capture les bonnes choses que les enfants peuvent apprendre de ce livre, des choses que s'ils les mettent en pratique, elles contribueront à leur avenir. Ce livre exhorte les enfants à se comporter. Nous avons la Duchesse comme exemple négatif, qui est une personne agressif et dont l'exemple ne doit pas être suivie. En outre, la lecture de ce livre pulsion les enfants à accepter les changements qui se produisent dans leur vie. Mme. la Chenille enseigne les enfants que les changements ne devraient pas être effrayant. Et qui d'autre serait mieux pour donner ce conseil, sinon une chenille, qui va bientôt devenir un beau papillon?

Ce qui suit est une incursion dans la littérature roumaine, en particulier parmi les traductions du livre Alice's Adventures in Wonderland en roumain. Depuis 1865, l'année de publication du livre ci-dessus mentionné, cette histoire a fait le tour du monde et est l'un des livres les plus traduits après la Bible et les œuvres du Shakespeare. En Roumanie, ce chef-d'œuvre est venu seulement au 20ème siècle, après plus de 70 ans du lancement. Après, il a été traduit dans langue roumaine par plusieurs traducteurs.

Alors j'ai décidé comparer la traduction en roumain réalisée par Eugene B. Marian (1998) avec celle de Mirella Acsente(2007), les deux basés sur l'histoire originale Alice's Adventures in Wonderland par Lewis Carroll (1865). La comparaison a révélé la traduction des calembours, la traduction des expressions et des proverbes. Suite à l'analyse, la traduction de Mirella Acsente s'est trouvé être la plus réussie traduction en roumain du livre Alice's Adventures in Wonderland par Lewis Carroll. Egalement du point de vue des illustrations, la traduction de Acsente Mirella (2007) se révèle le plus approprié, en gardant les illustrations originales du John Tenniel.

Pour l'instant, aucune théorie de la traduction de la littérature pour les enfants a été mis au point, bien que la nécessité de mettre ce sujet sur une base théorique solide a été fréquemment exprimée. Il faut se demander, cependant, s'il est possible de développer une théorie généralement applicable qui porte sur tous les différents sous-domaines. Est-il possible de concilier les nombreux aspects divergents et les différentes forces de la société au sein d'une seule théorie? Cela peut être la raison pour laquelle, à ce jour, pas une théorie est établie, bien que plusieurs approches très utiles ont été proposées.

Il semble nécessaire de développer la recherche dans plusieurs sous-zones du champ, en générant des résultats et des solutions pour chacun d'entre elles et, par conséquent, la création d'un ensemble croissant de << sous-théories>>. Ces contributions n'auront toujours le statut d'une théorie universelle, mais elles seront très utiles pour aider à faire la lumière sur de nombreux <<coins sombres>> qui existent encore. Dans le même temps, elles peuvent contribuer à élever le faible prestige de la littérature pour les enfants et de lui donner une place dans la société.

Rezumat

Studiile de traducere a literaturii pentru copii se constituie într-un domeniu de cercetare foarte vast care necesită o analiză sistematică a aspectelor principale ale traducerii literaturii pentru copii. Scopul acestei lucrări îl constituie depășirea limitelor studiilor disparate referitoare la traducerea literaturii pentru copii și susținerea statutului acesteia de disciplină academică distinctă. Pentru realizarea acestui scop, am adus în discuție cele mai importante aspecte legate de provocările și dificultățile traducerii literaturii pentru copii.

Deși intenția mea este să ofer direcții generale de cercetare care ar putea fi folositoare pentru traducător în activitatea pe care o desfășoară, consider că exemplele din Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Aventurile Alisei în Țara Minunilor) de Lewis Carroll sunt relevante pentru argumentarea ideilor pe care doresc să le evidențiez.

Demersul științific întreprins confirmă existența unor mari diferențe între cele două limbi și culturi, și anume limba și cultura română în comparație cu limba și cultura engleză.

Primul capitol, sugestiv intitulat Fundamentele traducerii literaturii pentru copii, tratează cele mai importante aspecte care definesc traducerea literaturii pentru copii drept o nouă disciplină academică. Gravitând în jurul copiilor ca beneficiari direcți ai întregului proces de traducere, traducerea literaturii pentru copii explorează impactul traducerii asupra viitorilor cititori. Traducătorii literaturii pentru copii sunt conștienți de constrângerile sistemice, adaptând traducerea la stringențele externe și la dezvoltarea internă. Pentru a realiza acest lucru, ei au anumite obiective, respectă anumite norme și utilizează anumite metode de traducere a literaturii pentru copii.

Echivalența – un aspect important în traducerea literaturii pentru copii, reprezintă titlul celui de-al doilea capitol al acestui lucrări. Acest capitol prezintă o analiză extinsă a conceptului de echivalență din diferite puncte de vedere, evidențiind influența acestuia asupra traducerii texelor literare pentru copii. Conceptul echivalență poate fi de asemenea văzut ca o oscilație între formalism și dinamism. Pentru argumenta acest lucru, am ales să aduc în discuție raportului dintre echivalența formală și cea dinamică, analizate de Nida (1964), scoțând în evidență atât acuratețea și transpunerea caracteristice echivalenței formale, cât și adaptarea reprezentativă echivalenței dinamice.

În mod similar, capitolul trei intitulat Traducerea referințelor culturale în cărțile pentru copii, este dedicat identificării itemilor cu specific cultural și tehnicilor de traducere a acestora. Atunci când traduce pentru un anumit tip de cititori, și anume pentru copii, traducătorul este conștient de faptul că unul dintre principalele obiective ale traducerii lui este formarea cititorului multicultural, cu o largă perspectivă asupra culturilor din întreaga lume. Referințele culturale reprezintă o categorie de elemente culturale folosite uneori cu scopul de a face aluzii la anumite lucruri sau pentru a crea anumite comentarii ironice. Newmark (1988: 95 – 102) împarte acești ,,termeni culturali'' în câteva categorii, și anume cultura materială ( referitoare la traducerea elementelor culinare) și traducerea gesturilor, expresiilor și obiceiurilor. Am ales să exemplific toți acești ,,termeni culturali'' descriși de Newmark, cu exemple din cartea Alice's Adventures in Wonderland de Lewis Carroll.

Capitolul patru – Relația text – imagine în cărțile pentru copii – subliniază importanța imaginilor în cărțile dedicate copiilor. Cărțile cu imagini sunt, din anumite puncte de vedere, esențiale pentru înțelegerea poveștii de către copii, cât și pentru păstrarea interesului acestora pentru lectură. Copiii cu vârste foarte fragede reprezintă categoria de cititor cea mai atrasă de imaginile colorate în culori vii, întâlnite în cărțile specifice vărstei și capacității lor de înțelegere. Unele cărți dedicate acestei categorii de copii conțin doar o sere continuă de imagini pe care fie le interpretează singuri, creindu-și propria poveste, fie le sunt interpretate de către părinți. În unele cărți cu imagini, unele aspecte cheie ale poveștii sunt transpuse în imagini, cuvintele fiind de prisos în această situație.

Atenția acordată imaginilor dispare puțin câte puțin, pe măsură ce copiii devin cititori competenți. Cititorii începători vor acorda maximă atenție imaginilor, și nu textului care le este citit. În sfera opusă se află cititorii competenți, printre care și adulții, care cel mai adesea îsi vor axa atenția asupra textului și vor lăsa deoparte sau chiar vor ignora imaginile. Într-o carte de calitate, atât textul cât și imaginile joacă un rol important în înțelegerea în totalitate a cărții.

În spatele oricărui proces de publicare a cărților literare pentru copii se află persoane care contribuie la asigurarea celei mai reușite cărți. Această ,,echipă'' este formată dintr-un autor ( sau mai mulți) care îsi exprimă în scris ceea ce gândește și un editor care citește și editează textul. Dacă luăm în considerare și faptul că anumite cărți conțin imagini, intervine găsirea unui ilustrator care este capabil să înțeleagă textul în așa fel încât să poată sa îl transpună în imagini. Munca unitară a tuturor elementelor unei cărți, printre care se numără și elementele vizuale, este făcută de un director. Iar dacă textul care urmează să fie publicat este un text tradus, atunci și traducătorul este parte a acestui proces complex.

În sfârșit, capitolul cinci reprezintă un studiu amănunțit al operei Alice's Adventures in Wonderland de Lewis Carroll, în care sunt ilustrate și anumite aspecte discutate în capitolele 2, 3 și 4 ale acestei lucrări. Pentru început se aduc în discuție câteva aspecte importante ale poveștii Alice's adventures in Wonderland precum faptul că numele real al autorului Lewis Carrol este defapt Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, că personajul Alice are la bază o fetiță reală, numită Alice Linddell. acestă fetiță nu este blondă, așa cum arată imaginile cărții, ci este brunetă.

Apoi se aduc în discuție ilustrațiile lui John Tenniel, care reprezintă ilustrațiile originale ale cărții Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Se amintește și contextul în care John Tenniel a acceptat să creeze ilustrațiile acestei cărți, cât și unele mici scăpări ale ilustrațiilor. În ciuda acestor mici greșeli făcute, ilustrațiile lui John Tenniel au fost și rămân cele mai reușite ilustrații pentru cartea Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Următorul aspect discutat în acest capitol suprinde lucrurile bune pe care copiii le pot învăța din această carte, lucruri pe care dacă le vor pune în practică, îi vor ajuta în viitor. Această carte îi indeamnă pe copii să se comporte frumos. Ca exemplu negativ o avem pe Ducesă, care este o persoană negativă și a cărei exemplu nu trebuie urmat. De asemenea, citind această carte copiii sunt îndemnați să accepte schimbările care intervin în viața lor. Doamna Omidă îi învață pe copii că schimbările nu trebuie să fie înspăimântătoare. Și oare cine altcineva ar fi mai potrivit să dea acest sfat, dacă nu o omidă, care în scurt timp va deveni un minunat fluture?

Ceea ce urmează este o incursiune în literatura românească, mai precis printre traducerile cărții Alice's Adventures in Wonderland în limba română. Din anul 1865, anul publicării cărții mai sus menționate, această povește a făcut înconjurul lumii, fiind una dintre cele mai traduse cărți, după Biblie și operele lui Shakespeare. În România, această capodoperă a ajuns abia în secolul 20, după mai bine de 70 de ani de la lansare. Urmează ca în limba română să fie tradusă de mai mulți traducători, iar traducerile devin din ce în ce mai reușite, odată cu trecerea timpului.

Apoi am ales să compar traducerea cărții în limba română efectuată de Eugen B. Marian (1998) cu cea a Mirellei Acsente (2007), ambele raportate la povestea originală Alice's Adventures in Wonderland de Lewis Carroll (1865). Comparația a scos în evidență traduceri mai reușite sau mai puțin reusite ale jocurilor de cuvinte, expresiilor și proverbelor. În urma analizei efectuate, traducerea Mirellei acsente s-a dovedit cea mai reușită traducere a cărții Alice's Adventures in Wonderland de Lewis Carroll în limba română. Din punctul de vedere al ilustrațiilor, tot traducerea Mirellei Acsente (2007) se dovedește mai adecvată, aceasta păstrând ilustrațiile originale ale lui John Tenniel.

În concluzie, prezentarea monografică a dovedit că traducerea literaturii pentru copii este un domeniu de cercetare care merită o atenție mult mai mare atât din partea teoreticienilor, cât și din partea practicanților și poate deschide noi căi de cercetare. Un model de traducere dinamic și comunicațional va crește profesionalismul în domeniu și va contribui la dezvoltarea orizontului cultural al copiilor din culturi atât de diferite cum sunt cultura română și cea engleză.

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Web Sources

About John Tenniel and the illustrations:

http://www.alice-in wonderland.net/resources/background/tenniel-and-his-illustrations/.

Adevărata Alice: Cum s-a născut ”Alice in Țara Minunilor” acum 150 de ani: http://iasifun.ziaruldeiasi.ro/adevarata-alice-cum-s-a-nascut-alice-in-tara-minunilor-acum-150-de-ani/41428/.

Alice in Wonderland: http://www.alice-in-wonderland.net.

Ce rol au avut ilustrațiile din povestea Alice în Țara Minunilor:

http://brainly.ro/tema/1259985

1865 – 2015: 150 years of the Macmillan Alice: http://aliceinwonderland150.com.