The challenges of translating metaphors in Slovene retranslation of Edgar Allan Poe's short stories

english

2025

volume 58, issue 1

American literature   metaphor   retranslations   short stories   translation strategies

Univerza v Ljubljani, Filozofska fakulteta
(Obvezni izvod spletne publikacije)

The article focuses on translations of metaphors, a unique aesthetic and poetic figure that requires special attention and accurate rendering in a literary translation. When translating metaphors, the translator should understand and preserve the meaning and the aesthetic component of the metaphors. The study discusses the rendering of metaphors in translations and re-translations of three short stories by Edgar Allan Poe: “The Gold Bug,” translated by Boris Rihteršič in 1935, and Jože Udovič in 1960; “The Pit and the Pendulum,” translated by Rihteršič in 1935 and by Udovič in 1972, and “The Fall of the House of Usher,” translated by Zoran Jerin and Igor Šentjurc (1952), and by Udovič in 1972. In gothic fiction, Poe established himself as a master of metaphors, which he used with astonishing fluency and precision. The results of the analysis demonstrate how and in which way Slovene translators rendered metaphors in the short stories of one of the greatest writers of gothic fiction, and what strategies they used to preserve Poe’s unique, dark, and delirious metaphorical style.

16.01.2026