ROMAN INGARDEN ON TRANSLATIONS* I. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TRANSLATION ur IHE WORK OF SCHOLARSHIP AND THE TRANSLATION OF THE LITERARY WORK OF ART 1. General Definition of Translation of the Literary Work of Art All written ("literary") works of art are characterized by the fact that they are many-layered and multi-phase due to the successive arrange- ment of their parts. There are at least four strata: (a) the stratum of word sounds and phonetic formations; (b) the stratum of semantic units of various orders; (c) the stratum of represented objects;' and, finally, (d) the stratum of schematized aspects. According to widely known theories of language, there is no necessary connection between the sound of a word and its meaning. It seems therefore, possible to "tie" the same meaning to different word sounds. And conversely, it happens that some word sounds are "tied" to two different meanings. This constitutes the phenomenon of polysemy. It is, therefore, conceivable to substitute all actual sounds in a given work of art with the .altogether different sounds taken from another language and thus produce what is commonly known as a "translation" of a work from one language to another. If in the course of this procedure the meanings in the semantic stratum remain unaltered, we usually say the translation is "faithful." This general definition of translation and its fidelity, however, will have to be subjected to certain alternations, especially in the context of the translation of the literary work of art. It is necessary then to take a look at the structure of the literary work of art and how it differs from the work of scholarship. 2. The Difference Between the Literary worK OJ Art and the Work of Scho*larship Works of literature in general, being the products of specific human activities, satisfy certain needs of the human soul, and, for some 131 A-T. Tymieniecka (ed.), Analecta Husserliana, Vol. XXXIII, 131-1 92. O 1991 KIuwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.