Abstract:
The paper focuses on the use of idiomatic language as epitomizing cultural
stereotypes and the problem of fidelity in literary translation. It is common knowledge
that idioms are specific to every culture and may lack direct equivalents in the target
language. The paper enlarges upon two main problems associated with the
translatability of idioms: how to comprehend the connotation of idioms in the source
language, and how to reconstruct conceptually and structurally these idioms in the target
language, sometimes changing referents while conveying the same meaning and the
writer’s stylistic effect.