Vegetal symbolism in the Rumanian translations of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Othello

Abstract

Since imagery and vegetal imagery (flowers, the effect of herbs, weeding, gardening, etc.) in particular play an important role in Shakespeare’s work, the paper examines two Romanian translations of the Bard’s Othello and Hamlet, paying special attention to the use of vegetal symbolism and how vegetal metaphors are rendered by the two Romanian translators. The two variants are compared in terms of effect on target reader, the manner in which cultural and historical elements are conveyed, and accuracy.