Expressional (Stylistic) Changes

Expressional Intensifying:
“This is certainly possible, but we do have some theoretical reasons for believing that we have, or are very near to, a knowledge of the ultimate building blocks of nature.” (p. 87)
„To je určite možné, ale máme niekoľko teoretických dôvodov veriť, že poznáme, alebo že sme veľmi blízko k poznaniu základných stavebných kameňov prírody.“ (p. 74)

Expressional Substitution:
“The general theory of relativity decribes the force of gravity and the large-scale structure of the universe, that is, the structure on scales from only a few miles to as large as million million million million miles, the size of the observable universe.” (p. 18)
„Všeobecná teória relativity opisuje gravitačnú silu a štruktúru vesmíru vo veľkých mierkach, to je v mierkach len od niekoľkých kilometrov až po milión milión milión miliónov kilometrov, čo je rozmer pozorovaného vesmíru.“ (p. 25)

Expressional Loss:
“And if, say, one of the bodies had twice the mass, and the other had three times the mass, then the force would be six times as strong.” (p. 25)
„A ak, povedzme, jedno z telies má dvojnásobnú hmotnosť a druhé trojnásobnú, potom sila bude šesťkrát taká veľká.“ (p. 28)

AD (b)

There is a controversy on how should be translated the text of scientific – popular nature. As well as anywhere else, there is not just one, universally valid resolution. There are at least two possibilities:
1 Translation is made by expert, more or less linguistically capable
2 Translation is made by philologian, more or less scientifically capable

In both cases, there should be so-called supplementary conditions executed. In first case, there is a growing value of linguistic revision of translation. On one hand, it should be solid, on the other hand knowledgeable and sensitive. The question of interaction between the translator and the editor raise above. In second case, there is a philologian facing a task to either manage given area contentually, terminologically and stylisically, or retain a reliable assistant.
Šurda is a physician, expert in a broad sense, but not an astrophysician, neither specialist in the universal theory of relativity nor cosmology. This resulted in the translation itself.
It obeys the original text, it aims to represent the characteristic lines of author`s own style. Althought, from the translatological point of view it has some weak parts. Here is a few reasons why. In brackets behind, there are the concrete demonstrations from the original and Slovak translation:

-It is often not possible to translate original text following the differences in enviroment, where the expressing language is the language of original text – distinction in culture, traditions, mentality, history etc. [For instance: “...I was a research student desperately looking for a problem with which to complete my Ph.D. thesis...” (p. 65)
“...som bol ašpirantom zúfalo hľadajúcim problém, ktorým by som mohol zavŕšiť svoju dizertačnú prácu...” (p. 61)]
This translation avoid of explaining the abbreviation Ph.D., which
could possibly confuse a Slovak reader. Ph.D.- Doctor of Philosophy –
is a title equivalent to Slovak CSc. – kandidát vied.