The treatment of idiomatic expressions in the Romanian version of the novel The Player by F.M. Dostoevsky

In translation, the idea of taking into account the cultural element is essential. A distinction is made between linguistic untranslatability (big difference between the source language and the target language) and cultural untranslatability (differences between the source culture and the target culture). Examples of linguistic untranslatability would be puns, proverbs, sayings, etc. Elements of cultural untranslatability are the names of institutions, foods, clothing, holidays, etc. These cases are resolved by footnotes or by transliterating terms whose meaning can be deduced from the context. In a literary work, proverbs, idiomatic expressions, puns are not translated, but equated or paraphrased. In the novel "The Player", the idiomatic expressions from the Russian language were either equated or translated, the translator showing bicultural competence.