When Goethe indicated that translators tried to make the translation identical with the original,

he also suggested that retranslation is needed when the original text is the best, but the second

and the third translators should try to make the target text identical with the source text(Goethe,

1819). Berman(1990) in 1990 officially offered the idea of retranslation hypothesis, mainly

showing that only one translation is not acceptable because of the ageing of the translations.

Furthermore, based on the state-of-art features of language, literature and culture, translations

may never catch up with the latest one. Other than Berman, Paul Bensimon claims that there

are essential differences between first translations and retranslations. The first ones are often

introductions of the foreign works, seeking to integrate one culture into another, while the later,

instead, maintain the cultural distance (Bensimon, 1990). Isabelle Collombat even added that

the twenty-first century may be identified as the Age of Retranslation because a considerable

increase in retranslations into several languages of major works of literature, philosophy,

history and psychoanalysis are happening (Collombat, 2004). Albachten and Gürçağlar (2019)

defines retranslation the result of the retranslated text itself, and in the field of literature,

retranslation is usually regarded as a positive phenomenon, leading to diversity and a

broadening of the available interpretations of the source text (Gürçağlar, 2009). Koskinen and

Paloposki denote that a retranslation is a second or later translation of a single soure text text

into the same target language. The process of retranslation is only a phenomenon that occurs

over a period of time (Koskinen & Paloposki, 2010). During the process, some retranslations

are said to have the purpose of updating, improving or correcting a former translation or

recreating a source text anew(Monti, 2011). Mîndreci, on the other hand, explains that
retranslations are a way of improving the comprehensive process of understanding, which

influence of the historical, social, cultural, political and temporal contexts of later retranslations”

(MÎNDRECI, 2014). Cecilia Alvstad and Alexandra Assis Rosa define that a retranslation

covers voices of multiplicity of agents, and each of the agents is determined by later

retranslators. Besides defining a retranslation a phenomenon, they subcategorized and analysed

within Translation Studies as a mere label, a new version (Alvstad & Assis Rosa, 2015). In

recent studies, Albachten & Gürçağlar have found that retranslation may have a rejuvenating

effect on the source texts, while translators and other agents in the publishing market use

retranslation to further their social, cultural, literary, or ideological agendas. Therefore, they

make sure that the source texts remain relevant for new generations and groups of readers

(Albachten & Gürçağlar, 2019). Either phenomenon or hypothesis what a retranslation may

represent, it is evidently believed that retranslation is a comprehensive concept not only in

Translation Studies but in society, which leads to another way to minimize the difference

between generations.

References

Albachten, Ö. B., & Gürçağlar, Ş. T. (2019). Introduction: Mutability in Retranslation. In Ö. B.

Albachten & Ş. T. Gürçağlar (Eds.), Studies from a Retranslation Culture: The Turkish
Context (pp. 1-10). Springer.

Alvstad, C., & Assis Rosa, A. (2015). Voice in retranslation. Target. International Journal of
Translation Studies, 27(1), 3-24. https://doi.org/10.1075/target.27.1.00int

Bensimon, P. (1990). Présentation. Palimpsestes(4). https://doi.org/10.4000/palimpsestes.598

Berman, A. (1990). La retraduction comme espace de la traduction. Palimpsestes(4), 1-7.
https://doi.org/10.4000/palimpsestes.596

Collombat, I. (2004). Le XXIe siècle: l’âge de la retraduction. Translation Studies in the new
Millennium, 2.

Goethe, J. W. v. (1819). Übersetzungen (H. Sloan, Trans.). In Noten und Abhandlungen zu

besserem Verständnis des west-östlichen Divans (pp. 307-310).

Gürçağlar, Ș. T. (2009). Retranslation. In M. Baker & G. Saldanha (Eds.), Routledge

encyclopedia of translation studies (2nd ed., pp. 233-236). Routledge.

Koskinen, K., & Paloposki, O. (2010). Retranslation. In L. v. Doorslaer (Ed.), Handbook of

Translation Studies Vol 1 (pp. 294-298).

MÎNDRECI, G. (2014). Ageing Translations and Retranslation Hypothsis. Language and

Literature—European Landmarks of Identity(15), 379-386.

Monti, E. (2011). Introduction La retraduction, un état des lieux. In Autour de la retraduction:

Perspectives littéraires européennes (pp. 9-25). Orizons.