Translating children’s biographies: A translator’s self-critique

Abstract

Children’s literature translations need to be treated like a work of art. The translator becomes the second writer. As an artist, the translator needs to be aware of the principles guiding children’s literature writing. At the same time, the translator needs to familiarise themselves with translation strategies for children’s literature. Similarly, children’s biography translation requires the translator to focus not only on the fact that one is translating children’s literature, but also that the story is non-fiction. Therefore, the translation process might be more challenging than general fiction translation. The aim of this article is to critically evaluate a children’s biography translation that has been performed by the author. The research findings were that, although the translation may be rated as fair, it has some notable errors that might diminish the quality of the translation.