My presentation will be about the Romanian translation of the novel Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes. It represents a part of the case study for my Bachelors paper, which focuses on matters such as problems in translation, translation mistakes and their stakes, namely the effect on the reader.

The novel was translated into Romanian by Dan Rdulescu. The first edition of the translation appeared in 2003. However, our (Do I keep the plural?) study is based on the second edition of the book, published in 2013. As a genre, Flowers for Algernon is a science fiction novel: it presents an experiment that was proven successful on mice such as Algernon. The experiment consists of an attempt to extend the human minds potential. The book is organized in 17 Progress Reports written by the main character, Charlie Gordon (the subject on which this experiment was first tested on men). The Reports show his initial IQ, that of 68, which indicates a state of definite feeble-mindedness, followed by his immediate progress after undergoing brain surgery, which actually turns him into a genius, and then, in the final part of the book, his return to the previous state, due to the experiments failure.The main characters condition is visible through his writing, use of punctuation, spelling and range of vocabulary, as you can see in the example above: I dont no why Im dumb agen or what I did rong (Keyes 2002:216)

Translation comes with high stakes. The translator is not only responsible for the quality of the translated text, for the fidelity to the original, but he or she definitely has a responsibility towards the public. When translating, one should make sure that the publics expectations are met (I am not quite confident about this statement) and that the readers are not deceived in any way. Ideally, it should be as if they are reading the original text. Therefore, mistakes in translation lead to a higher level of distrust in the translators abilities and make it harder for the TT to be interpreted and even understood, as it can gain a clumsy or even absurd form.

But what do we understand under mistakes in translation? To begin with, we should make it clear that, as Peter Newmark puts it, There is no such thing as a perfect, ideal or correct translation. Pham Na, from the University of Western Sydney proposes a model of errors in translation, which separates translation mistakes in 3 categories. The comprehension errors appear when one misunderstands the source text. Linguistic errors is an umbrella term that comprises (list above). Translation errors represent distortions of the source text. Some of the already mentioned types of mistakes will be further exemplified based on quotes extracted from the novel Flowers for Algernon.

Wrong lexical choice refers to the cases when the translator cannot find the right word to translate. It is a mistake in translation because it may impair the comprehension of the readers. In this case, the problem is the use of a false friend. False friends are expressions or words that have the same, or a similar form, but their meaning is different (Baker: 2001). The Romanian word 'excitat' means rather 'stimulated' than the word used in English, excited. The translations readers might easily be misleader; therefore, a more suitable equivalent in this context for the English word might be entuziasmat.In this case, the word 'ditch' is used informally; 'ditching somebody' meaning to leave someone behind. In the original, Charlie was abandoned, so that his so called friends would be able to make fun of him, but in the translation he was put in an even worse situation. Nonetheless, the text was misinterpreted through the literal translation of the word ditch, leading to the following Romanian mistranslation: ...the night he fell in the ditch...'.(? Is is ok?)

Collocational errors are those that appear in the idiomatic usage of language. Idioms and fixed expressions sometimes represent an issue in the Romanian version of the book:In this case, the attempt to make a literal translation is not quite successful, because once again, the meaning of the ST is distorted. The translation states: 'I am not feeling good and I am tired. But the actual meaning, in Romanian, would have been m-am sturat or, to use a correspondent idiom, mi-a ajuns pn-n gt.

Comprehension errors might arise when the references made in the ST are not kept in the TT as well, but mistakenly change the object the reference is made to:While in the ST cohesion is achieved through the reference of the personal pronoun it, from the second sentence, to the word operation, from the first sentence; in the TT, the first part of the second sentence no longer refers to the operation itself, but to the person talking; becoming: I wish I would work right now. Coherence is lost in translation.In the TT there appears an additional reference to Prof Nemur, namely: Prof Nemur dont want everybody to leff at him. The ST did not contain this reference for a specific reason, in order to create an amusing misunderstanding, to give Charlie the change to express his naivety and simple mind set when thinking that everything revolves around him, even the Professors concerns about what people think. However, the additional reference that gives away even from the start that the Professors concerns are about himself make it so that the follow-up in Charlies thoughts seems rather foolish, as if he did not pay attention to what was previously said or was rather self-centered.

According to Kussmaul (1995), translation mistakes can generate a different effect on the translations readers, other than that of the original. Although when talking about readers we inevitably talk about various perspectives, subjective ways of understanding the text, Kussmaul believes that the translator can easily step into the role of the average reader and therefore translate accordingly.We (plural?) believe that the mistakes in translation make it such that the main character, Charlie Gordon, is presented as a more foolish, clumsy and silly character than that from the original. Therefore, the Romanian public might have a different perception of Charlie, while the readers of the English version would probably sympathies and like Charlie more, as they encounter a rather funny and childlike character.In conclusion, translation mistakes have a high stake, since they can change the readers response to a text, in this case, a novel.Thank you for your attention!