Source Text-Target Text Relations

Most of the time Source Text-Target Text Relations are considered with an approach assuming that the source text is always perfect; therefore it deserves translation, therefore it is translatable. Even the discussions on the translator's visibility, the existence of the translated work as a product on its own, its release from the chains of the source text with analogy to colonialism and post-colonialism are carried out with this assumption. However, there are also not so perfect source text. And they are not so uncommon. Responses to questionnaires, reports prepared by non-native speakers, some draft meeting minutes are some of the examples. These texts also cause to questioning the quality of translation. As a translator, I have received many compliments for my good translations and also many criticisms for my bad translations. Of course the number of criticisms decreased as the years passed. Sometimes they are related with the translations that I did when I was too tired or on the topics that I never worked on before. But on other occasions, -not a coincidence- both compliments and criticisms were mostly related with the quality of the source text. Of course other factors such as the time you spend on translation, proofreading after a certain time, having a clear mind while translating influence the degree of the quality of translation, but ceteris paribus the quality of the target text is related with the quality of the source text. Therefore, I believe  the ST-TT relations should be re-thought with the assumption of a not-so-perfect source text. And when not-so-perfect texts are in question, I believe having an in-depth knowledge of the source language means nothing. Actually, due to the examples I have seen in the translation market, I believe that having less knowledge of the target language works better for such texts.