Translation across cultures: the Ballads of Kukutis by M. Martinaitis in English

ENOne of the greatest challenges for the translator is the rendering of culture-specific items - traditionally regarded as a potential source of untranslatability. Many scholars have discussed this issue and different approaches have been described within the discipline of Translation Studies. Even though a lot of publications have appeared recently on the topic few investigate texts that are catalysts for revolution and identity preservation that deserve much attention. Therefore, the paper aims to examine key cultural elements most strongly fixed in The “Ballads of Kukutis” by Marcelijus Martinaitis that served as a catalyst for revolution and were chanted, sung and performed everywhere during the mass political rallies of the late 1980s and early ‘90s in Lithuania. The authors employ models for translation quality assessment within the framework of three translation strategies distinguished by Eirlys E. Deivies and attempt to reveal whether it is possible to maintain the original SL text meaning in the TL. For the aim to be achieved the authors discuss norms, translatability and a cultural approach to translation; analyse the correlation between translation and pragmatics; review key cultural texts in translation; analyse the chosen cases and calculate the frequency of translation strategies used. It is a theoretical and empirical research, with emphasis on the cross-cultural aspects of translation. Methods of research used in this study are: translation quality assessment.