Soare Maria Mirabela

In my opinion, in his translation of Virgina Woolfs novel The Waves, Petru Creia
tried to stay as close as possible to the original text and to reproduce it as nearly as
possible. The translator tried to be faithfull to the text and to translate it for the author. In
doing so he didnt make the text harder to be read.
But sometimes the translation looses the sens of the source text. For example the
paragraph The introduction has been made, the world presented 1 is translated with
Prezentarea a fost fcut, ne-a fost prezentat universul.2 I think that in translating the
world with the Romanian word universul the translator lost the sense of the original text
because the world means all of the people, societies, countries while in Romanian
universul has a more abstract meaning ( the invisible and the visible world, the world
and the space including the great unknown).
Even so the translator remains faithful to the original text for example in the
following paragraphs:
On his lips quotations from the Bible, from The Times, seem equally magnificent.3
Rostite de el, citatele din Biblie sau din Times sunt la fel de mree.4
The translator keeps the name of the newspaper The Times because if he was to translate it
in Romanian as Timpul the name would have been mistaken with the newspaper from
Romania. The Times just like the newspaper Timpul from Romania, is an old famous
newspaper. He keeps on being faithfull to the text when he uses the metaphorical version
of the Romanian verb a furi:
But we have forged certain links.5

1 Virginia Woolf, The Waves, http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0201091h.html, (accesed

26.04.20016), 34
2 Virginia Woolf, Valurile, ( Bucureti: RAO International Publishing Company, 2005), 46
3 Virginia Woolf, The Waves, http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0201091h.htm, (accesed
26.04.20016), 34
4 Virginia Woolf, Valurile, ( Bucureti: RAO International Publishing Company, 2005), 46
5Virginia Woolf, The Waves, http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0201091h.html, (accesed
26.04.20016), 34

Dar ne-am furit verigi.6

The verb to forge used in this context means to form, to make ( a strong friendship) and
it has a correspondence with the metaphorical version from Romanian a furi. Both verbs
from the both languages are archaic verbs and in the context of translation, the translator is
accurate.
The translator gives the reader the opportunity to understand better the original. For
instance the translation of the paragraph: And then a bee drifts in and hums round the
flowers in the bouquet which Lady Hampton, the wife of the General, keeps smelling to
show her appreciation of the compliment. 7 is i atunci, o albin se strecoar nuntru i
zumzie n jurul buchetului de flori pe care lady Hampton, soia generalului, l ine tot
timpul la nas, ca s arate ct apreciaz atenia care i s-a artat. 8 This is a translation for the
reader because even if the Romanian phrase l ine tot timpul la nas does not have the
same esthetic sense of the one used in the source text ( keeps smelling the flowers) it gives
the reader the opportunity to understand better the context.
Also the translator keeps the word lady for lady Hampton, he does not translate
it in Romanian as domnioara Hampton. The word lady is usually a designating term
for the social status, in this case lady Hampton is the wife of the General so the translator
remained faithfull to the author and the word remained untranslated in order to point the
word designating lady Hamptonss social status.

6 Virginia Woolf, Valurile, ( Bucureti: RAO International Publishing Company, 2005), 46

7 Virginia Woolf, The Waves, http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0201091h.html, (accesed
26.04.20016), 35
8 Virginia Woolf, Valurile, ( Bucureti: RAO International Publishing Company, 2005), 47