THE TRANSLATION STRATEGIES OF IDIOMS IN THE PHRASEOLOGICAL DICTIONARY OF ILO STEFANLLARI FROM ENGLISH INTO ALBANIAN

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the methods used in Ilo Stefanllari’s Phraseological Dictionary to translate idioms from English into Albanian. The study focuses on how the translator preserves the figurative meaning, emotional tone and cultural naturalness of the target language, because idioms are complex and often cultural. A corpus of 150 selected idioms, categorized according to thematic categories such as body, animals, nature, food and colors, served as the basis for the analysis. The results show that when equivalence is present, idiomatic translation – or idiom for idiom – is the most used technique when it is not, paraphrase or cultural adaptation are used. To preserve the essential meaning, Stefanllari usually chooses to explain or translate idioms that contain specific aspects of English culture in a haphazard manner. According to the study, interpreting idioms requires the translator to be flexible, sensitive to cultural differences, and imaginative. Stefanllari is an excellent illustration of how this task can be performed well