IS IT A TABOO TO TRANSLATE A TABOO IN A LITERARY TEXT?

Abstract

The close relationship between language and culture, which is perhaps the most vital one, is reflected in translation. Since culture is considered to be its fundamental aspect, taboo language, which is culturally bound and deeply rooted into the socio-cultural context, certainly challenges the translator. This paper outlines some aspects of taboo language and focuses on problems and challenges related to translation of these items in literary texts. The purpose of the survey is to show that, bearing in mind all the necessary aspects of literary translation, it is absolutely necessary to keep taboos in translation as much as possible because neutralizing them would have a negative impact on its stylistic dimension. Furthermore, the negative impact on the quality and the stylistic aspect of translation will also be discussed. The results are of practical value since they shed light on the role and the dimension of taboo words as an important stylistic feature of the literary text and on the importance to retain their explicitness in translation.