The Bilingual Edition in Translation Studies

Abstract

The bilingual edition is curiously absent from the field of translation studies. This article looks closely at the nature of such an edition, and the specific problems that it presents to the translation theorist. Publishers’ strategies are examined, as are the translator’s introduction and notes, which—in their great diversity—contribute largely to the particular nature of such a text. After I consider reading strategies, comments are made on the importance of the translation process, and on how the bilingual edition is the ideal place for the details of such a process to be brought out, both for students of language and translation, as well as for the more advanced student of comparative literature.