Brief Overview of Translating Literary Prose: Problems and Solutions

This article deals with the problems in translating literary prose and reveals some pertinent solutions
and also concentrates on the need to expand the perimeters of Translation Studies. The translation
courses offered at many universities in Bangladesh and overseas treat the subject mostly as an
outcome of Applied Linguistics. Presently, the teachers and students of translation are confused at the
mounting impenetrability of the books and articles that flood the market. Unfortunately, the translators
lay more emphasis on the translation of poetry; there should be more research regarding the
particular problems of translating literary prose. One explanation of this could be the fact that the
status of poetry is considered higher, but it is more possibly due to the notable flawed notion that the
novels, essays, fiction etc. possess a simple structure compared to that of a poem and is thus easier
to translate. However, many debates have been organised over when to translate, when to apply the
close local equivalent, when to invent a new word by translating clearly, and when to copy.
Simultaneously, the “untranslatable” cultural- bound words and phrases have been continuously
fascinating the prose-translators and translation theorists. The plea made in this article is to admit the
fact that there is a lot to be learnt from shaping the criteria for undertaking a prose-translation and we
should appreciate the hard work, difficulties, or frustration of the ‘translators’ (go-betweens) in the
creation of good sense of the texts.