La importància de ser fidel

The author reflects on the notion of fidelity in translation, on the basis that it is an inescapable requirement, but also stresses the need to define, qualify and illustrate what such fidelity may and must consist of, as well as the frequent incompatibility between being faithful and being literal. Besides qualifying the notion of fidelity and its diverse materializations, this paper also places a particular emphasis on the possible beneficiaries of the translator's fidelity, from the belief that one may - and in fact must-be faithful in two directions: towards the author and towards the recipient of the text, without detriment to either of them. By focusing on examples taken from theatrical translations for the stage, the author closely associates fidelity with the effort to work on the audience an equivalent effect to that of the original, as well as with the consequent translator's responsibility towards the most external layers of a text. Finally, a direct proportion is established between a suitable reception of a translated text and the translator's invisibility.