HOW TO TRANSLATE. No universal method for the right way of translating a text has ever been proposed. This thesis rather aims at providing a potential translator with an overview of approaches to translating a text. From the author’s own experience, with the following steps observed, the translating process should be doable and the result successful: • Read • Reread • Reproduce • Read • Back-translate Read means to become familiar with the original ST to grasp the basic notion of its style, vocabulary and context. If the context is not known, a translator is obliged to do a short research of the situtation for which the text was or could have been designated. After this initial encounter with the text, the translator should reread it and once becoming familiar enough with the text, one may start reproducing it and translating into the TL. Read stands for reading the translation and testing whether it conveys the identical message with the ST, back-translation. This means spending more time on translating the translation back into the SL. The tranlation either deviates or copies (and this latter one is the desirable alternative) the original idea of the text. As practical advice as this might seem, the theory of Xxxxxxx may underlie this above- mentioned procedure. Xxxxxxx describes a similar approach in his A Textbook of Translation. To build on the theorems listed in the Theoretical part, the style of legal documents are dealt with in the Practical part of the thesis in greater detail. The analysis of a franchise agreement, its original text as well as translation are discussed in relation to the theory of legal language. At the same time, the characteristics of the particular field of legal documents – contracts and agreements and their language – will be discussed.
