Translating Watership Down

Abstract

This thesis analyses the major issues that occur when translating Richard Adams’ Watership Down (1972) into Dutch by categorising them into Christiane Nord’s four categories of translation problems. The focus lies on text-specific problems, such as the rabbit language Lapine, the use of eye dialect, the names of the characters in the novel, and the religious elements. Two passages of the novel have been translated into Dutch accompanied by footnotes, which explain certain choices and different options for the chosen translation. After that, a brief comparison is made between the already existing translation by Max Shuchart and the translation made for this thesis.