ИСТИНА

The paper focuses on the comprehensive and correct understanding of the ST on the part of the translator as one of the key prerequisites and a conditio sine qua non of adequate translation of a literary text. It argues that understanding is crucial on all levels of the text – from lexical meanings and connotations, phraseology, idiomaticity, to syntax, stylistic devices and overtones, etc., and, apart from these various levels of the language, the levels of expression, there are various other aspects of the text – its cultural, historical and literary allusions, i.e., its vertical context, the various culture-specific terms, and other, both explicit and implicit elements and features of the text that the translator must achieve understanding of to produce its adequate and worthwhile rendering in a different language. The paper discusses some examples of misunderstanding on the part of the translator in a selection of translated literary texts (fragments thereof) in Russian and English.