Cultural Images as an Issue in the Process of Translation

In this paper we present some issues that occur during the translation of literary works, especially from Slovak, but also from Slavic cultural sphere, into Romanian, as a result of differences regarding cultural images or linguistic issues. This will be followed by a more thorough systematization in the future. On the basis of Miko’s theory of style, we have analysed texts by Slovak writers such as Samo Chalupka, Ivan Štrpka and others, as translated into Romanian by professor Barborică and Ondrej Štefanko. We have highlighted the fact that in some cases the cultural images are within cultural tradition due to the grammatical gender of the word-the main groundwork for an image, analysing the instances in which they cause issues in translation, requiring the translator to resort to different solutions, including displacing the meaning either towards the iconic, or towards the operative, or finding an adequate substitution. Similar situations also occur in the case of a confrontation between two languages, two codes-the linguistic and the artistic, which involve a knowledgeable recipient, trained in the field of art and languages. The issue is also of interest in the context of comparatism.