Author as the Other Translator: from cooperation to collaboration through competition and compromise

This contribution proposes a theoretical model of translation as collaboration for analysing and guiding a translator’s decision-making. Collaboration is achieved via translator-author mutual identification as the final aim of translating, with a shared and further-developed version produced. From cooperation to collaboration, competition and compromise are identified as two developmental milestones, implying two counterbalancing dynamics that propel the evolution of translatorship and authorship and the progress of mutual identification. Through competition, a translator’s voice is heard and then through compromise, the voice is listened to. Mutual identification as the final aim of translating constructs a translator’s professional identity, and also makes an author the “other translator” the translator collaborates with, highlighting their shared credit and status. It is therefore argued that the added value of translating fundamentally lies in the enrichment of both translatorship and authorship. Two representative cases are analysed based on self-reflection to explore the interactive and dialectical process in a translator’s decision-making towards translator-author collaboration, towards their mutual identification, as an ethical final aim of translating.