To ‘Domesticate’ or to ‘Foreignize’ in translation?

This case study examines the ‘domesticating andforeignizing’ strategies of translation, through theinterdisciplinary nature of Translation Studies, inan attempt to translate the Turkish Cypriot poet andauthor Neşe Yaşın’s novel Üzgün Kızların Gizli Tarihi(The Secret History of the Sad Girls): ‘Todomesticate or to foreignize’? And is this the onlychoice the translator has? The ‘domesticating’strategy in translation presents the source text aslocal and it reduces the source text to the targettext language. Whereas the ‘foreignizing’ strategy“sends the reader abroad” and gives the reader ataste and flavor of the culture and language of thesource text. How should the translator proceed?Furthermore, through the lens of Translation Studies,how does gender, (multi)-culturalism, politics,linguistics, feminism and the feminist voice,literary theory and criticism function or take theirrole in our attempt to translate Yasin’s novel? Whatis the role of the translator? What about thepoly-lingual and multi-cultural aspects of languagein translation and the borders and boundaries aroundthem? Is a translation the “after-life” of the text?Are we lost in translation?