One Story: Several Translators: Several Narrators

Reading translated narrative texts we not only hear the narrator's voice but also that of the translator as the narrator of the translation which is mixed with the original voice. Translator's voice is manifested through linguistic and paratextual elements in the translation. This fact is much highlighted in children's literature since, as OSullivan (2003) puts it, the relation between the (adult) author and the audience (children) is 'asymmetrical'. Moreover, compared to the other genres, translators of children literature feel freer translating these texts thus making themselves more visible. This research intends to show the difference between translator's narration and that of the original author through studying their presence/voice in translated children literature based on Herman's (1996) and Baker's (2000) theories and the narrative model proposed by OSullivan (2003). To this end, three stories by Hans Christian Andersen and their three Persian translators (two translators for each story) are chosen as follows: Ahmad Kasei Pour (1381), Jamshid Navaei (1385) and Mohammad Reza Shams-Parisa Homayunruz (1388). The results show that the translators have used different strategies, either textual or paratextual, in order to narrate the stories and thus making themselves visible differently thus one story has as many narrators as it has translators.