Three-dialectal dimension of Croatian literature, both before and after the language standard was formed, offers specific possibilities of expression, not only to men of letters but also to translators of literary texts. In her research into the theory and practice of translation the author has studied the problems of rendering dialectal texts or interpolations into foreign languages. In this article she tackles an almost unresearched topic - the use of dialectal expression in translating foreign literatures with us, keeping within the boundes of the question of the translation of poetry. In the first part, dealing with the period before the Croatian language standard was formed, the author points out that the use of the so called regional literary languages has no stylistic function, since the poets were rendering texts into idioms of the chakavian, shtokavinn or kajkavian expression used by themselves in their own original works (e.g. M. Marulid, S. MenČetid, I. Krizmanid). On the other hand, when the same expression is used in any form in the present -day translations it assumes a clear stylistic connotation (e.g. F. Calc, A. Šoljan). In the second part the author studies the dialectal translations from the period after the standard language was formed. Those translations, rather rare, are the product of the poets who have themselves written, partly or solely, in kajkavian or chakavian dialect (e.g. D. Domjanid, I.G. Kovadid, or Z. Jakšid and J. Zuljevid). Such translations are a deliberate choice of the translators and have an outstanding stylistic value.
