Taboo language in translation

Abstract This article discusses the notion of equivalence from a descriptive and target‐oriented perspective. The first part of the article deals with this notion from a theoretical point of view and argues that equivalence has a heuristic value in Translation Studies provided one does not adopt a prescriptive and source‐oriented perspective. In order to prove this assertion, the analysis focuses on specimens of taboo and informal language in Dante's Inferno in the translation by Henry Francis Cary, who expurgates such language items in his Vision (1844). In order to shed light on this topic, the author of this article describes Cary's deviations from formal equivalence and does not condemn them a priori However, a posteriori they are explained in terms of the norms affecting translation in the rewriter's historic context (the expurgation of coarse language was a common strategy among translators in Cary's time) and in terms of the constraints of the metre adopted, namely blank verse, which could not acco...