Translators are more and more often involved with the visual. This is the case with translation of, e.g., picture books and manuals. Yet the visual is often overlooked in the context of translating. Performance is an essential part of art, whether a novel, painting, composition, or picture book. In the case of picture books, performance includes at least two issues: the use of the book (reading aloud and listening) and the influence of the visual (illustrations). My paper is concentrating on the latter: it deals with translation as communicative action, with a special regard to the visual. In my view, translation is rewriting in individual situations for new individual, target-language situations. My fundamental assumptions are: 1) translation always takes place in a situation and it always has a purpose (translating FOR children); 2) translator is responsible and uses power in translation situations (cf. children and adults); 3) the original in translation consists of the verbal and the visual (picture books); and 4) the visual may have a foreignizing or domesticating influence on the book entity. With the help of illustrations we may, e.g., explain or make more obscure.

The translator of a picture book must be able to interpret both auditive and visual messages to understand the dynamics of words and illustration. Just as the translator translating from English into Finnish must be a specialist and know both languages, the translator of illustrated literature must know the language of illustrations. The more prominent the illustrations are, the more important it is for a translator to have the ability to read this language. It is difficult for me to understand why publishers are in the dark about the demands placed on translators of picture books. This also shows up in the publishers’ attitudes to children's literature in general: they find it ‘easier’ than literature created for grown-ups. My paper is theoretically based on translation studies (Lefevere, Venuti, Robinson) as well as on dialogics (Bakhtin), semiotics (Gorléée, Martin and Sauter, Greimas), and research on illustration and children's literature (Mitchell, Arnheim, Gombrich, Shulevitz). The paper covers translation of picture books for children and shows several examples, from Lewis Carroll and Tove Jansson to my own translations of, e.g., Crockett Johnson, Shel Silverstein, and Niki Daly (who’s South African).

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