Can translation be considered as a social and discursive process in which equivalence is negotiated between the two cultures?

... Can translation be considered as a social and discursive process in which equivalence is negotiated between the two cultures? For many years, translations were regarded merely as a reproduction, almost a copy of a source text - rendered in a somewhat mechanical fashion by a translator, following a set of rigid rules and devices. In fact further to this idea of translation theory being misjudged, it can be argued that translation has in the past been thought of as a product rather than a process (Olher, 2004). Readers in general look at a translation either as an end product, or a text to be aligned with a concurrent and almost parallel source text. As such, the thought processes and decision making which are associated with a translation can be taken for granted or even lost. Hatim and Mason (1997) refer to translation as: An act of communication which attempts to relay,

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