THE SERBIAN TRANSLATION OF TOLDI’S EVE

Abstract

Jovan Jovanović Zmaj published the Serbian translation of the first volume of Toldi in 1858. Srbski Letopis [Chronicle of Matica Srpska] recognized it as the most significant publication in Serbian for the year, noting that Toldi in Serbian reads more as a “second original” rather than a translation, as if János Arany himself spoke from its pages in Serbian. Zmaj planned the translation of Toldi’s Eve, the part of the trilogy published second in 1854, shortly after. However, the Serbian translation was not published until 1870. This paper deals with the comparison of the original work and its translation while taking into account the viewpoint of cultural translation studies, and at the same time it presents an overview of the reception of the target-language text in the Serbian culture following the Austro- Hungarian Compromise of 1867.