Literary translation

La retraducción (una nueva traducción a la misma lengua del mismo texto) se hace posible cuando ha transcurrido el tiempo suficiente para considerar inaceptable la traducción precedente. La presente investigación se basa en un corpus compuesto por La Chatte (1933) de Colette y sus dos traducciones al español (1976 y 2008). Se ha llevado a cabo un estudio basado en un equilibrio entre lo teórico y lo empírico que engloba todo el proceso de retraducción de la obra. Asimismo, hemos marcado como objetivos constatar la relación entre ambos textos meta, dilucidar las causas que motivan una nueva traducción, examinar las diferentes interpretaciones que ofrece un texto literario y, finalmente, juzgar la pertinencia de una segunda traducción. Tras un análisis comparativo, cualitativo y cuantitativo, concluimos que la retraducción supone una mejora con respecto a la primera traducción, pues moderniza el lenguaje y resuelve errores existentes.  Palabras clave: hermenéutica, traducción literari...

Revista Desassossego, Vol. 16, No. 31, 2024
Homenagem a Eduardo Lourenço

Organizadores do número:
  Editores convidados:
  Caio Gagliardi (Universidade de São Paulo, Brasil)
  Jerónimo Pizarro (Universidad de los Andes, Colômbia)
  Rui Sousa (Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal)
Editores responsáveis:
  Carlos Gontijo Rosa (Universidade Federal do Acre, Brasil)
  Rosely de Fátima Silva (Universidade de São Paulo, Brasil)

PUBLICADO: 2024-06-24
  https://www.revistas.usp.br/desassossego/issue/view/13302

EDITORIAL
Caio Gagliardi, Jerónimo Pizarro, Rui Sousa
  1-6
DOSSIÊ HOMENAGEM A EDUARDO LOURENÇO
Desenvoltura e contestação: uma leitura do ensaio de Eduardo Lourenço sobre a “Nova Literatura”
Carlos Conte Neto
  8-33
Eduardo Lourenço perante o Livro do desassossego
Flávio Rodrigo Vieira Lopes Penteado Corrêa
  34-53
“Repensar Portugal”: Almeida Garrett, Alexandre Herculano e Eduardo Lourenço
Antonio Augusto Nery, Eduardo Soczek Mendes
  54-80
As três grandes refutações: a crítica pessoana de Eduardo Lourenço pelo prisma da ironia
Caio Gagliardi
  81-93
Tropeçar no morto — Mário de Sá-Carneiro visto por Eduardo Lourenço
Ricardo Vasconcelos
  94-109
DOSSIÊ LITERATURA E MITO: HISTÓRIA, MEMÓRIA E IDENTIDADE - PARTE 2
A arqueologia de um exilado: desconstruções e restaurações da mitologia portuguesa em Atlântico, de Manuel Alegre
Maria Eduarda Miranda Paniago
  111-134
A caverna, no Marão: lendo o mito de Platão em Teixeira de Pascoaes
Mariana Pereira Guida
  135-146
Falácias do “destino crístico”: o mito de Ourique (1139) e as respostas anticlericais de Alexandre Herculano (1810-1877)
Eduardo Soczek Mendes
  147-172
Interidentidades portuguesas em O Esplendor de Portugal, de António Lobo Antunes
Kairo Lazarini da Cruz
  173-188
O colonialismo e as identidades em trânsito em Luanda, Lisboa, Paraíso, de Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida
Júlia Beralde Gonçalves, Rodrigo Valverde Denubila
  189-211
VÁRIA
O vazio inefável em Uma menina está perdida no seu século à procura do pai, de Gonçalo M. Tavares
Ibrahim Alisson Yamakawa
  213-237
Releituras da tradição: Pode um desejo imenso (2002), de Frederico Lourenço
Maurício Dutra Félix, Jorge Vicente Valentim
  238-260
RESENHAS
O homem que muito foi: Pessoa segundo Zenith
Flávio Rodrigo Vieira Lopes Penteado Corrêa
  262-276
OUTROS DESASSOSSEGOS
A regra
Rafael Sousa Santos
  278-288
Expediente
  293-296

Caio Gagliardi
Professor de Literatura Portuguesa da Universidade de São Paulo. Doutor em Teoria e História Literária pela Universidade Estadual de Campinas.
Contato: caiogagliardi@usp.br
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4422-7544

Jerónimo Pizarro
Professor Associado da Facultad  de  Artes  y  Humanidadesna  Universidad  de  los  Andes, Colômbia. Doutor em Literaturas Hispânicas pela Universidade de Harvard.
Contato: jeronimopizarro@gmail.com
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9688-9830

Rui Sousa
Investigador  do  Grupo  1  do  Centro  de Literaturas  e  Culturas  Lusófonas  e  Europeias  da Universidade  de  Lisboa.  Mestre  em  Estudos  Românicos –Literatura  Portuguesa  Moderna  e Contemporânea e  Doutor  em  Estudos  de Literatura  e  de  Cultura pela  Faculdade  de  Letras  da Universidade de Lisboa.
Contato: ruidnsousa@gmail.com
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2810-0092

Reflecting on the place of the Laments XVII and XVIII within the funerary cycle of Jan Kochanowski, the author of the article comes to the conclusion that, contrary to appearances, it is possible to identify many arguments in favor of their integral relationship with the rest of the collection. However, the fundamental purpose of the dissertation is to set both works in relation to the biblical tradition of the Book of Psalms. The author's attention is particularly drawn to the crowning phrase of Lament XVIII: "Use mercy on me today, O Lord!", which the poet uses in only slightly altered form on six other occasions, each time in a paraphrase of the Psalter of his pen. An analysis of the individual instances leads to an outline of the context in light of which a supplication uttered by a character plunged into despair can count on a favorable response from the Most High, coming to the aid of those who, in an attitude of humility, turn to Him for deliverance.

Leon Piniński (1857–1938) was one of the most outstanding legal scholars and men of art at the turn of the XIX and XX centuries. His achievements in law (in particular Roman law and the law on ownership) have already been acknowledged in the research literature. There are also many publications about his life and work as a Professor of Roman law at the University of Lwów. No proper research, however, has been done into Piniński’s contribution to Shakespeare’s studies. The paper attempts to fill this gap by discussing Leon Piniński’s legacy as a translator and commentator on William Shakespeare. The analysis focuses on a two-volume work entitled William Shakespeare. Wrażenia i szkice z twórczości poety (Lwów, 1924). In this seminal contribution, Piniński examines all of Bard’s plays in terms of sources, synopsis, themes and intertextuality. Leon Piniński also translated Shakespeare’s works and criticised the translations by such prominent authors as Leon Ulrich and Józef Paszkowski. Many of his ideas and translation choices were innovative compared to other Polish versions of Shakespeare’s plays and are still relevant today.

Рукопись Вильнюсской Библиотеки Академии наук Литвы (F 19–262), ветхоза- ветные книги которой переведены на западнорусский письменный (рутенский) язык, создана около 1517–1530-х годов. Первоначально считалось, что все ее книги переведены с древнееврейского языка. Однако М. Таубе виртуозно показывает, что источником псалтыри стали церковнославянская псал- тырь и латинская Библия. Текст псалтыри неоднороден: преобладание черт западнорусского языка во второй ее половине отмечалось исследователями и ранее. Однако подробного лингвистического исследования, выявляющего закономерности перевода текста всех псалмов, не было. Актуальным становится вопрос о принципах перевода. Задачи исследования – описать соотношения, в которых находятся церковнославянский и западнорусский языки в псалмах, и переводческие приемы. Первые 16 псалмов практически не обнаруживают признаков рутенского языка, грамматические и фонети- ческие черты которого представлены вкраплениями. С 17-го по 71-й псалом изменения накаплива- ются количественно, возрастая к середине псалтыри, создавая впечатление хаотичности языковой организации текста. Лексическая правка проходит в двух направлениях: заменяются некоторые церковнославянизмы и начинается унификация перевода латинских слов. Правка проведена с разной степенью последовательности, однако почти все предлагаемые переводчиком лексемы повторятся в следующей части псалтыри, часто на месте одного и того же латинского слова. С 72-го псалма церковнославянская основа лишь проглядывает сквозь западнорусскую. Это преображение затро- нет все уровни языка. Зафиксировано единственное употребление формы быхмо в сослагательном наклонении, а поскольку она активно распространяется в конце XVI века, вряд ли стоит относить этот перевод псалтыри ранее, чем к первой трети XVI века, то есть он одновременный рукописи. Не исключено, что он был задуман специально для этой рукописи. Причем работа проделана одним человеком, а языковая неравномерность связана с поиском принципов перевода.

The presentation traces the 99-year long history of translations of E. M. Forster's A Passage to India . There have been at least 56 translations in at least thirty guages since 1925 when the first Swedish translation appeared. It is difficult to give a precise number as some more may be expected in the anniversary year. Some of them were quickly replaced, some (such as the French and Finnish translations from the 1920s) have been in print ever since their first publication. The presentation is ordered chronologically, according to languages in order to show the changes within one language (some translations such as the Spanish or Portuguese circulate beyond state boundaries). The presentation is, for obvious reasons, merely an over-
view, an invitation to Forsterian scholars from various cultures to analyse the translations into their languages.

Comparative studies of different translations for the same source text can be valuable sources of insights relevant to the fluid notion of 'translation style'. Such studies can employ a wide variety of techniques, including computational analysis which targets specific elements in the text in order to allow for a systematic view of translator style. This study attempts a computational-stylistic analysis of the two English translations of Naguib Mahfouz's controversial novel Awlad Haratina (literally, Children of our Alley). The aim of the study is twofold. First, it aims to show how quantifiable computational and distant reading techniques can help identify patterns of stylistic differences between these two translations. Second, it attempts to situate the results of this analysis within the wider social context of the two English translations (Stewart 1981 and Theroux 1996) of one of the most famous modern Arabic novels. The results clearly show patterns of linguistic use specific to each of the two translations highlighting differences in lexical variety and richness, sentence structure, readability level, stylometric analysis as well some lexical choices. These results can be interpreted within the social context of producing those two translations, with particular reference to characteristics of retranslation as discussed in the literature.

The novel Khālī jagah (2006) by the Hindi writer Geetanjali Shree mainly focuses on the topics of violence, loss, and quest for identity in the contemporary world. In this text – and in others too, but maybe here more than elsewhere – the author makes use of a very hybrid and idiomatic Hindi. Moreover, she repeatedly plays with iterations and alliterations, assonances and consonances, onomatopoeias and neologisms, and creates a particular syntax that might be described as dismembered, dislocated, and breathless. To these elements must also be added the inclusion of excerpts from folk songs as well as the essential role played by silences and unsaid things. If all these features are to be taken into account when translating such a narrative – as its content is tightly coupled to its form – it makes for a highly complex and challenging task. After providing a very brief summary of Khālī jagah, I will first highlight a few rhythmic and translation related issues, before analysing in de...

Nel Corno d’Africa il somalo è una lingua parlata nella Repubblica Federale della Somalia, nel Somaliland, a Djibouti, nell’Etiopia orientale, e nel Nord Est del Kenya da circa 22 milioni di persone, cui va aggiunta una diaspora di più di un milione di parlanti nello Yemen, negli Emirati Arabi, in Europa, in America Settentrionale e in altri Paesi. In Somalia Federale, nel Somaliland e nella Regione somala dell’Etiopia il somalo ha statuto ufficiale e viene utilizzato nell’amministrazione dello Stato e nella pubblica istruzione. Questo articolo contribuisce al primo volume del grande opera 'Atlante Pinocchio' pubblicato da Treccani con il supporto dell'Istituto dell'Enciclopedia italiana, con istituzioni di ricerca e università italiane, e con il finanziamento del Ministero degli Affari Esteri.

الآمال الكبرى هي أحد اهم الاعمال الكلاسيكية للكاتب البريطاني تشارلز ديكنز. حيث انها تعكس مراحل من حياة الكاتب نفسها في طفولته. يتحدث الكاتب عن الطبيعة البشرية ويصورها بكل احترافية وعن الطبقية الاجتماعية التي كانت سائدة في بريطانيا في تلك الفترة.

Metaphors in the translations of Boesław Leśmian’s poems into Czech language. A comparative approach. This article attempts to characterize the way four translators, who dealt with the Dvořáčková, Iveta Mikešova, Jan Pilař and František Kvapil shows how important rhyme and rhythm are in Leśmian’s layer of a poem in the target language. For the analysis of metaphorical expressions, I use the theory of concept metaphor introduced by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson in Metaphors we live by.

Eastern aesthetics seems to be a well-established discipline today. Seigo Kimbara (1888–1958), Hiroshi Mizuo (1932–2022), and Tomonobu Imamichi (1922–2012) each authored a book entitled Eastern Aesthetics, published in Japanese in 1932, 1963, and 1980, respectively. When the term "Eastern aesthetics" is broken down into its components “Eastern” and “aesthetics,” however, it becomes clear that this concept is by no means self-evident.  The academic discipline of Eastern aesthetics has been created by modern Eastern scholars, especially since the late nineteenth century, as they grappled with Western aesthetics and the notion of the East. In this paper, we will examine this process of the establishment of Eastern aesthetics in Japan, particularly by exploring Kakuzō Okakura’s (1863–1913) three master pieces written in English: The Ideals of the East with Special Reference to the Art of Japan (1903), The Awakening of Japan (1904), and The Book of Tea (1906), all of which attempt to justify Eastern (especially Japanese) art and views of art to Western readers. Okakura’s justification of the Eastern view of art and aesthetics against that of the West can be divided into four major types. The first three are mainly discussed in The Ideals of the East and The Awakening of Japan, while the fourth is particularly emphasized in The Book of Tea. My focus will be on the fourth type.

The Bewildered Cameleer is a novel by Iran’s first and best-known Iranian female novelist and short-story writer, Simin Daneshvar (1921-2012). Published in Tehran in 2001, it is the second book of what was intended to be a trilogy. The translation of the first book of the trilogy, Island of Bewilderment, has recently been published by Syracuse University Press (2022). Unfortunately, the manuscript of the third book has been lost since 2007. While The Bewildered Cameleer includes most of the same characters featured in Island of Bewilderment, it is not necessary to have read the first book in order to understand and appreciate the second. Each book stands on its own as a complete novel.


The Bewildered Cameleer takes place in Iran (primarily Tehran) during the last few years of the Pahlavi regime and the first years of the Islamic Republic (approximately 1976 to 1981). The story focuses on several young adults trying to work out their personal and familia relationships; to establish their particular stance with respect to political theory and action, philosophical positions, and spiritual beliefs; and to build satisfying lives for themselves in the midst of the significant social, economic, and political pressures of the era. The primary protagonist is Hasti Nourian, a college-educated artist in her late 20s who is somewhat unwillingly drawn into the politics of pre- and post-revolutionary Iran. It is a historical novel, recounting many events of the period vividly and realistically.


As the book opens, Hasti is in prison largely because of her association with peers politically active in opposition to the Pahlavi regime. Meanwhile, Salim Farrokhi, a suitor whom she recently privately married, is grappling with his feelings about her, especially since she neglected to take advantage of his efforts to rescue her. In the next several chapters we learn more about the events leading up to Hasti’s arrest and her motivations in forgoing the rescue opportunity, and we meet most of the other major characters. We also get a glimpse into the treatment of prisoners, particularly political prisoners, during the Pahlavi era.


When Hasti returns home, she finds her family life in disarray. Things have deteriorated in part due to her imprisonment and absence, but also due to the increasingly unstable political situation. Some of her friends and family members are packing up to leave the country, while others are becoming more involved in anti-regime political activities, secular and religious.


In the immediate post-revolutionary period, Hasti and her family are caught up in the enthusiasm of some to Islamicize the country and to upend social classes. Through her characters, Daneshvar criticizes the inefficiency, hypocrisy, and lack of compassion of those in power in the immediate post-revolution period, the results of which proved even more disastrous during the first years of the war with Iraq.

Статья посвящена специфике «пушкинского мифа» в грекоязычной культуре. В начале описываются результаты полевого исследования, посвященного представлениям современных греков о Пушкине. Затем рассматриваются наиболее яркие имена греков-переводчиков Пушкина и история основных этапов формирования греческого «пушкинского мифа», выразившаяся как в биографиях самих переводчиков и присущих им переводческих стратегий, так и в расстановке акцентов в изложении пушкинской биографии. На примере раннего этапа формирования «пушкинского мифа» в грекоязычной культуре подробно описывается история формирования греческой пушкинианы и основные труды по ее изучению. В итоге, ставится проблема специфики формируемого в греческих переводах «пушкинского текста» и предлагается концепция, согласно которой своеобразие «греческого Пушкина» обусловлено спецификой греко-русских отношений второй половины и особенно последней трети XIX в., определивших, с одной стороны, интерес к творчеству Пушкина со стороны греческой диаспоры юга России, с другой, — ее стремление так или иначе соединить «русского Пушкина» с греческой «великой идеей».

This contribution is about the peculiarities of the “myth about Pushkin” in Greek-speaking culture. In the first part, we describe the fieldwork research where we investigate what contemporary Greeks know about Pushkin. Then, we observe the most eminent translators and basic stages of the formation of the Greek “myth about Pushkin”, along with the analysis of the translating strategies and the way of narrating of Pushkin’s biography. We analyze the earliest stage of this process in the Greek-speaking culture as an illustration of Greek Pushkin studies. As a result, we think that the main problem here are the specific features of the “Pushkin’s text” and propose a concept that the uniqueness of Greek Pushkin originates from the unique Greek-Russian relations of the 2nd half (especially the last third) of the 19th century. They raised interest of Greek diaspora in the south of Russia towards Pushkin’s works, on the one hand, and the intention to combine “Russian Pushkin” and Greek “Great Idea”, on the other.

Fernandu Pesoa, “Nemiera grāmata”
[Fernando Pessoa, "Livro do Desassossego"]
Rīga [Riga]: House of Languages [Valodu māja], 2024
Tulkotājs: Dens Dimiņš [Tradutor: Dens Dimiņš]
Rediģēja: Heronimo Pisarro [Editado por Jerónimo Pizarro]

https://valodumaja.lv/product/fernandu-pesoa-nemiera-gramata/?
Latvija [Letónia]

Šīs grāmatas tulkojums tapis ar Camões – Instituto da Cooperação e da Língua, I.P un Direção-Geral do Livro, dos Arquivos e das Bibliotecas (DGLAB), un Valsts kultūrkapitāla fonda atbalstu.
[A tradução deste livro foi realizada com o apoio do Camões – Instituto da Cooperação e da Língua, I.P., da Direção-Geral do Livro, dos Arquivos e das Bibliotecas (DGLAB) e do Fundo Nacional de Apoio à Cultura.]

Iespiesta tipogrāfijā “ULMA”.
[Impresso na tipografia “ULMA”.]

Tulkotājs: Dens Dimiņš
Ilustrācijas: Macejs Senčiks
Dizains: Ilze Kalnbērziņa-Prā / “Kolektīvs”
Redaktors: Aivars Vaivods
Korektore: Ildze Jurkāne
[Tradutor: Dens Dimiņš
Ilustrações: Macejs Senčiks
Design: Ilze Kalnbērziņa-Prā / “Kolektīvs”
Editor: Aivars Vaivods
Revisora: Ildze Jurkāne]

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between language and image in Nonsense texts through analysis of illustrations, animations, and live-action portrayals of scenes from Lewis Carroll\u27s Alice\u27s Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, Norton Juster\u27s The Phantom Tollbooth, and their adaptations. This study proceeds by first discussing the discrepancies between various definitions of the critical term nonsense as applied to a genre of literature, then moves on to critique the established term of visual nonsense as used within the discourse community. The analysis of word-image relationships in the sample texts demonstrates the lack of evidence of visuals being able to convey traits of the Nonsense genre without the assistance of words in a written or spoken capacity, which renders the critical term visual nonsense unnecessary

This paper examines the German translation of two novels by the Cameroonian author Ferdinand Oyono and goes against the normative approach adopted by so many critics of translations of African literary texts. It argues that if the German translation of Ferdinand Oyono is bad in the Bermanian conception, it is mainly because it is a good translation of an original text which means to be read as translation. Hence it is neither good, nor bad.

Recent political events and significant challenges experienced by translators in the field of political media discourse around the world led me to this research dealing with taboo words in the translation. The issue of translating taboo and swear words has been extensively studied in the fields of audio-visual and literary translation, however the topic received less attention in the field of media translation. For the purpose of this research, source language texts and translations into Russian provided by multilingual media agencies, such as the BBC and Euronews were analysed in this paper.

M.P.Sankunni Nair (1917-2006) was an outstanding scholar in Indology and a celebrated critic of Malayalam. His writings reveal his critical insight and the amazing range and depth of his erudition in a number of languages like Sanskrit, Tamil, English, Prakrit and Malayalam. His works on Kalidasa, Abhinavagupta, Sanskrit theatre, linguistic interfaces and contemporary literature reveal his astounding originality. He was the recipient of Sahitya Akademi Award, Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award, Otakkuzhal Award, N.V. Krishna WarrierAward and Kerala Sahitya Akademi Fellowship. This monograph gives a comprehensive account of his varied contributions.

C. Rajendran worked as Professor and Head of the department of Sanskrit and Dean, Faculty of Languages at University of Calicut. He is the author of forty-one books and more than two hundred research papers published in international and national journals. His noted works include Vyaktiviveka-A Critical Study, Studies in Comparative Poetics and Explorations in Indian Philosophy. The honors he received include Kerala Sahitya Akademi award, G.N.Pillai Endowment Award, Keralapanini Award and-Chacko Endowment Award. He received Ramakrishna Sanskrit Award, instituted by Canadian World Education Foundation for outstanding contributions in Teaching and Research. He has delivered lecfures at Cambridge,

This article proposes that in order to understand the nature of literary translation as an art form, we need to complement existing approaches drawing on literary, linguistic and sociological theories with insights derived from performance studies. As a way of exploring what the theorization of translation as performance art could contribute to our understanding of literary translation, I map four basic tenets of performance as restored behavior (Schechner 1985) to two translators' (Margaret Jull Costa and Peter Bush) accounts of their practice. The mapping is illustrated with writings by and interviews with the translators, focusing on four points of contact: the unresolved dialectal tension between self and other, the deliberate, rehearsed nature of decisions, the need for distance between original and performance/translation, and the role of the audience.

Despite the relevance of text type to translation practice, especially to Chinese-English non-literary translation in which the two languages display remarkable textual differences, there has been a general lack of attention to the text type-related issues in translation teaching in Chinese universities. Centered upon translation of literary works, the teaching has long focused on techniques at the lexical and syntactic level, and a text-based approach has yet to be adopted. This coincides with the clear tendency in the assignment of non-literary translation that students are quite active in making adaptation at the lexical and syntactic level, but much more reluctant to make decisions at the textual level. Despite their intuitive awareness of the textual differences between the two languages, they are not well trained to effectively deal with such differences so that the translated text can fulfill its communicative function. This article is an attempt to pinpoint this problem and ...

El estudio aborda el tema de la literatura marcada por rasgo diatópicos (diastráticos) diacrónicos, diaestilísticos y diaculturales y analiza los problema que genera su presencia en los textos en relación con el proceso traslativo (siendo los contraste intralingüísticos los más relevantes), así como la posibles soluciones que se aportan desde la teoría y práctica de la traducción. Se parte de unas obras concretas, las piezas del teatro popular vienés del segundo tercio del siglo XIX (que
a día de hoy no han sido traducidos en España), para después ampliar el enfoque hacia otros polisistemas lingüístico-culturales con el fin de sacar unas conclusiones que vayan más allá del caso específico. A través del estudio contrastivo de la literatura marcada y de la literatura marcada traducida (los ejemplos proceden de la literatura española, austro-alemana y anglosajona) se determinan los recursos de marcación, su funcionalidad, grado de parentesco y aplicabilidad en traducción.

Although they are important in all types of translation, in literary
translation culture-bound terms acquire special relevance due to the aesthetic effect of their treatment in expressive texts. They pose translation problems because they express idiosyncratic values linked to the foreign text, which are not shared by the target audience. The lack of equivalence may be complete (lacunae) or partial (losses in denotation/connotation). This paper resorts to a case study to analyse the two-directional influence of diachrony on translation decisions: a) caused by the evolution of the degree of opacity of culture-bound terms; and b) caused by changes in translation norms. The analysis is based on translation techniques. Among the most significant techniques for the
transfer of culture-bound terms are glosses. Their relevance in literature is the result of the predominant use of an exoticising translation method. Since exoticization tends to cause comprehension problems, translators use (intratextual or extratextual) glosses to make these opaque elements
transparent. Given the importance of glosses for this study, a second research question arises: Is there a causal link between the translation method and the type of gloss? To answer this as well as the other research questions, the corpus of analysis was based on the translation techniques regarding culturebound terms of six Spanish versions of Franz Grillparzer’s short novel Der arme Spielmann. The analysis offers clear indications of the influence of diachrony on the decision-making process. Regarding the second question, the study reveals a direct link between the preferred type of gloss and the translation method. Finally, as an additional result, the paper includes a new proposal for classifying translation methods linked to glosses.