”Olis sen voinut suoraankin kääntää”

Abstract

In the Finnish authorised translator’s examination, translation tasks should be carried out in a documentary way, whereby the translation retains the features of the source culture and does not adopt the conventions of the target culture. At the same time, the translation should follow the norms of the target language and avoid expressions that are not typical of the target language. In my article, I examine what culture-boundness and translation of culture-bound expressions mean in the context of the authorised translator’s examination. I ask how examinees and assessors deal with culture-bound expressions. Based on my analysis of the examination translations and interviews, examinees seem to be aware of the principle of documentary translation but do not always associate it with culture-bound expressions. As for assessors, they evaluate culture-bound expressions in terms of how these can be translated either directly or in some other way. The results suggest that both culture and documentary translation need to be considered on a case-by-case basis, considering the specificities of language pairs. Therefore, the recommendations regulating the assessment of the examination translations should be taken with sound judgement.