Übersetzung und Rückübersetzung – eine Neubestimmung im Kultur-Code

The article proposes a revaluation of the category of “Translation” and “Retranslation” from the perspective of the translatological culture code. On the basis of Præludier, a novel about Frédéric Chopin written by Peer Hultberg, the author illustrates why and how the process of translating cultural phenomena can be coded by a writer at different levels of the original language. The target text, a traditional translation, becomes in such a case an aesthetic Retranslation. The other example presents different ways in which the translation process is no longer coded at the level of language, but a universal myth, which is adapted to the consciousness and mentality of the recipients, such as those of a play “Antigone in New York”, written by Janusz Głowacki. In this case, the category of traditional translation is scarcely based on the original language of the text. The play itself is a translation of the Antigone myth and the following language versions illustrate a Retranslation at the level of the myth’s transcultural appeal.