Another pragmatic factor relevant to translation, is the socio—psychological and ideological orientation of the translator himself. As far back as 1936 K.l. Chukovsky wrote that “every translator translates himself, i.e., deliberately or inadvertently reflects his class affiliations. And in doing so he does not necessarily set himself the task to falsify the original”. This view may be somewhat oversimplified but it is true that although ideally the translator should identify himself with the author, this is not always the case. What is more, sometimes it is impossible. Therefore, classics are retranslated as each generation rereads them from its own vantage point. Chukovsky cites an instructive example: in translating Shakespeare’s Coriolanus the Russian translator Druzinin tried to reproduce the original accurately. Yet he advertently adapted the tragedy to his own political views of a liberal opposed, to the revolutionary raznochinzi of the 1860s.

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