Bridging the gap - A semiotician's view on translating the Greek classics

Translating the authors of classical Antiquity is in many ways comparable to Bible translating: authoritative texts remote in time, language, and culture are deco(n)textualized, transcodified, then reco(n)textualized. This enables them to survive the ravages of time and reach out to future generations. A semiotic approach to translation – semio–translation – explains the kinetic and ephemeral nature of all translational activity. According to her expressive stereotype, communicative attitude, etc., the translator will choose and decide which macro– and micro–strategies to follow in order to bridge the spatio–temporal gap: either approximating the translated version to the original, or moving away from it towards the target structure, culture, and expectations. These polarities – historization/modernization, exoticism/naturalization – determine the diachronic and diaspatial dynamics of translation of the classics. © 1997, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.