Abstract:
This research focuses on the problems encountered by the translators in translating cultural words
depicted in the novels “Gamperaliya” and “Viragaya”. Accordingly, the researcher attempts to find
the answer for the research problem “What are the problems faced by the translators in translating
cultural words in “Gamperaliya” and “Viragaya”? There, the Source Texts were subjected to a
close scanning process and thus identified the cultural words. It was followed by identifying the
translated versions of those cultural words in the Target Texts. They were categorized based on
the categorizations of Peter Newmark and Espindola, and thus conducted a qualitative content
analysis using comparative research methodology. Accordingly, it was found that the translators
faced problems such as encountering unfamiliar cultural words, finding the meanings of such
unfamiliar cultural words, finding equivalents, collecting information to explain the cultural word
in the text, translating religious terms, receiving the support of a subject expert or a native,
translating proper names and deciding the most suitable procedure of translation among several
strategies. The present research revealed that the culture creates a complex hurdle for the
translators in Literary Translation.
