Open Access

Horst Schuller

• Presenting the actual theoretical debates (of Göhlich, Welsch, de Nancy, Bachmann-Medick) with respect to the concept of transculturality, underlining the related aspects such as hybridity, intertextuality, globalisation, the author traces the aspects of transculturality in the process of the translations from Romanian to German. The success of the literary transfer is conditioned by the intra- and intercultural competence, by the knowledge of the identity factors, of the specific operational frame and of the key texts (translations or originals) from the literatures that come into contact with it. As in other countries, where there are specific basic cultural notions with a certain symbolic charge like „birch” in Russia, „hut” in the Czech republic, the traditional cultural universe affirmatively or polemically resorts to cultural words such as „plai” (poetic realm), „codru” (forest), „mioritic” (mioritical). Tracing by means of rich examples the history of translations, the author distinguishes the stages of translations motivated by philological, ethnographic, political interests and lastly and parallel to it, by aesthetical interests. These translations contribute to the identitary image of the Romanians, being normally recorded with an increased attention and sensibility. Concretely applying the discussed theoretical concepts on a text, the author presents the German translation of an essayistic text by Andrei Pleşu, arguing the possible interest of the German public for the writer, emphasizing the ironical hybrid and ludic signs that are important for the translation, with all untranslatabilities of the word games, in order to find at least an adequate, if not equivalent, transfer. The annotations and the translation (starting with the analysis of the title) constitute a demonstration of transculturality applied live.