Sociocultural and Ideological Implications in the Translation of Sensitive Texts: Reflections from The Lord’s Prayer and its Multiple Reading Possibilities

Abstract

The present work employs the explanatory tool paratext for translations of sacred texts, also considered sensitive texts due to its peculiarities. While building a paratext the initial focus was on different perspectives in order to problematize both the process of translation and different versions generated for particular publics. As an analytical category, lexical choices were sellected since it was assumed that there are ideological and sociocultural implications, which underlie the semantics of each lexical choice made, showing what point of view guided the translation, since such implications are often put more clearly in the form of a paratext that can guide the reader. As an example, a paratext was produced based on a translation of The Lord’s Prayer that intends to be universal.