Echelles et serpents. Lire en réseau pour mieux traduire

Based on a corpus of texts that are used to teach seminars in translation into the foreign language, the present paper argues that for future translators good reading skills are almost as important as high-level proficiency in both languages. The corpus comprises texts that share a common topic (travelling) but differ in terms of genre, so that the specific characteristics of each text can be described in relation to the other component texts rather than to abstract text types included in text typologies. The exercises in the seminars, before actually starting to translate, aimed at reading a text at different levels, i.e. the text as a whole, its discursive dynamics, and its component parts, while trying to connect it to the other texts included in the corpus. The preparatory exploration of the source text as well as the actual process of translation can be conceptualized as the Game of the Goose (or Snakes and Ladders): translators have to find their way through the text, taking advantage from short cuts and anticipating pitfalls they already know from past experiences.