Kongeniaalsusest antiikkirjanduse tõlkimisel - Arutlusi Titus Liviuse teose "Linna asutamisest alates" eestindamisest lähtudes
Congeniality in the translations of ancient literature - Discussions proceeding from the Estonian translation of Livy’s Ab urbe condita

Summary/Abstract: The principles of translation and commenting on classical literature are discussed on the example of an Estonian translation of Livy’s „History of Rome” (Ab urbe condita), Book 1. According to the translators Kristi Viiding, Mart Noorkõiv and Tuuli Triin Truusalu, they followed Johannes Aavik’s principle of team translation. The article points out that although the translation is largely successful, the translation strategy applied obviously deviates from the one claimed to have been used. Notably, the core concept of Aavik’s idea is congeniality, meaning that team translation can hardly succeed without a unifying editor who has the closest stylistic empathy with the source author. Among Estonian translators of classical texts, this criterion has hitherto been best fulfilled by Maria-Kristiina Lotman and Kai Tafenau. The final half of the article addresses the translators commentary, which, besides the basic and advanced comments helping the reader to understand the contents and historical background, should contain commentator-centered congenial explanations, which are lacking in the publication discussed due to the compilation method used in the commentary for the given translation. The inappropriateness of the compilation method is proved by the ambiguities and errors mostly occurring in the commentaries on Greek literature and culture. Hopefully, the trio of translators will succeed even better in the future, when truly adopting the principle of congeniality in both translating and commenting.

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