Ο αργαλειός της μετάφρασης: Μεταφορές ελληνόφωνων μεταφραστριών και μεταφραστών

Metaphor is not restricted to language; it resides in human thought and affects human action (Lakoff Johnson 1980). Accordingly, metaphors on translation reveal the way language users think of translation in a given place and time and may impact translators’ social and professional status (Hermans Stecconi 2002). Translation studies as an academic discipline can thus benefit from a process of self-reflexivity about the various available metaphors on translation and their implications. Particularly in an era of globalisation, when dominant Western European metaphors tend to acquire hegemonic proportions, it is crucial to study translation metaphors belonging to peripheral languages (Tymoczko 2010). This paper aims to classify and analyse metaphors in translation employed by Greek-speaking literary translators between 2016-2019. Metaphors were retrieved from: (a) videotaped interviews conducted under the project Portraits of Translators and (b) episodes of the radio program Carte Postale: Confessions of a Translator. Using Lakoff and Johnson’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory as a theoretical framework, metaphors were classified into 40 categories, which were in turn divided into six main sections (translation is: i. reading, ii. cohabitation, iii. exploration, iv. wrestling, v. writing, vi. metaphor). Quantitative analysis of the data (180 metaphorical expressions) suggests that 80% of translators employed metaphors in at least one instance, while translation as wrestling was the conceptual metaphor with the highest rate of linguistic occurrences.Metaphor is not restricted to language; it resides in human thought and affects human action (Lakoff Johnson 1980). Accordingly, metaphors on translation reveal the way language users think of translation in a given place and time and may impact translators’ social and professional status (Hermans Stecconi 2002). Translation studies as an academic discipline can thus benefit from a process of self-reflexivity about the various available metaphors on translation and their implications. Particularly in an era of globalisation, when dominant Western European metaphors tend to acquire hegemonic proportions, it is crucial to study translation metaphors belonging to peripheral languages (Tymoczko 2010). This paper aims to classify and analyse metaphors in translation employed by Greek-speaking literary translators between 2016-2019. Metaphors were retrieved from: (a) videotaped interviews conducted under the project Portraits of Translators and (b) episodes of the radio program Carte Postale: Confessions of a Translator. Using Lakoff and Johnson’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory as a theoretical framework, metaphors were classified into 40 categories, which were in turn divided into six main sections (translation is: i. reading, ii. cohabitation, iii. exploration, iv. wrestling, v. writing, vi. metaphor). Quantitative analysis of the data (180 metaphorical expressions) suggests that 80% of translators employed metaphors in at least one instance, while translation as wrestling was the conceptual metaphor with the highest rate of linguistic occurrences