Percepciones metafóricas de la traducción en lengua búlgara: el traductor es un superhombre y la traducción es una guerra

This paper presents the main results of an empirical study on the metaphors of translation and interpreting used by Bulgarian translators and interpreters. The theoretical framework is provided by second-generation cognitive sciences, in particular, the Conceptual Metaphor Theory. The aim of the work is to explore the metaphorical conceptualization of translation and interpreting in Bulgarian language and to investigate whether the Bulgarian socio-cultural and political environment has facilitated the emergence of specific metaphors, different from those already analyzed in Translation and Interpreting Studies. The results of the study show, on the one hand, the use of the transfer, travel, art and perception metaphors, which are similar to those collected in earlier translation studies, and, on the other hand, the emergence of metaphors related to the Bulgarian political and cultural life during the socialist era: the metaphors of war and of superman, which may be specific of the Bulgarian culture.