Domestication in song translations

Abstract

The presented article examines the notion of domestication as applied in the translation of song lyrics. Since the famous essay Translation, Community, Utopia by Lawrence Venuti, who condemned domestication as a form of cultural appropriation, this technique has generally been under attack despite some mitigating voices, such as that of Krzysztof Hejwowski. And this situation did not change when the new idea of translatorʼs authorship appeared. This article takes the stance of Hejwowskiʼs arguments and tries to apply them in the realm of (mostly melic) song translations, presenting positive and negative features of domestications there. It is meant to show that domestication can be used not only for informative purposes for the reader (as is usually assumed), but also as a creative tool in its own right.