Retranslation

Retranslation refers to the action of 'translating a work that has previously been translated into the same language' or to the retranslated text itself. Retranslation of classic literary works and religious texts is common. Retranslation may happen for many reasons, e.g. in order to update obsolete language, in order to improve the quality of translation, in order to account for a revised edition of the source text, or because a translator wishes to present a new interpretation or creative response to a text. This is most common in poetry and drama. The translation scholar Lawrence Venuti has argued that texts with very great cultural authority, including 'the Bible, [...] the Homeric epics, Dante's Divine Comedy, Shakespeare's plays, or Cervantes' Don Quixote are likely to prompt retranslation because different readerships in the receiving culture may have different interpretations, and may want to apply their own values to the text. Retranslation is common in subtitling. It is less common in dubbing and the response from viewers is not always positive.