Into the Heart o f Matters - in Search o f the Finality of the Translation Proces

The article aims at providing a provisional answer to the question conceming the finality of the translation process. The main point of interest is the status of the revised version of a published translation, that is whether the revision is to be treated as a new realization of a particular literary work (and consequently enriching the translation series of this particular work) or not. In the introductory part, the article examines shortly the models of the process of translation focusing on including the stage of revision into it. The analytical part discusses examples of changes introduced in the revised version of Aniela Zagórska’s translation of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness in comparison with the first published version. The analysis refrains from pointing out corrected mistakes or updating lexical items, syntax and spelling. It focuses on the changes in the treatment of key expressions (heart and darkness, the horror) as well as some examples of structural repetitions and changes of lexical items connected with nautical terminology. On the basis of the investigation one may conclude that the introduced changes do not involve merely intralingual shifts in order to make the revised target version more natural. Rather they involve alterations which stem from a meticulous hermeneutic analysis of the original work and noticing a careful patterning of the lexical items and structures so that this patterning may be reflected in the translation and provide for new interpretative possibilities. Consequently, in William Frawley’s terminology, the translation code in the revised version is modified to such an extent in comparison with the code of the first translation that one may venture the hypothesis that the result is a new realization of this particular literary work.