Does "una figura humana" indicate that the human figure is naked?

Question

In Tom Sawyer, this phrase appears in the original English (near the beginning of chapter 20):

a human figure, stark naked

In the Spanish translation, it says

una figura humana

I take that to be simply "a human figure."

Does the Spanish phrase actually indicate a clothes-free state of said human figure?

If not, why would the translator fail to translate that aspect of the matter? It is key to the story, because Becky Thatcher is looking at the "human figure" in an anatomy book that is normally "under lock and key" in the teacher's desk, and she is embarrassed when Tom sees her looking at it.

Additionally, if the phrase used does not indicate a "friend of a textile-free environment", should the translation be something like "una figura humana, sin ropa"?

Answer 1

I agree with @parliament-of-owls that just "una figura humana" does not imply that the depicted human being is naked.

But I disagree with both of you about the right translation.

You're right, according to the Merriam Webster dictionary

stark naked [idiom]

wearing no clothes at all

But "una figura humana, sin ropa" does not convey the text completely. The word "clothes" is not present in the original text, why we have to mention it in Spanish?

We want to translate two words: stark, an adverb, and naked, an adjective. Let's choose the equivalents in Spanish: completamente and desnuda, respectively.

So "figura humana, sin ropa" is a translation but not a good one because it does not reflect the original writer's intention. He has used and adverb to remark the degree of nudeness: stark naked, completely nude.

I suggest

figura humana, completamente desnuda.

You have to add the adverb completamente [absolutely] to reflect the "impact". It's not just naked or nude, it's stark naked. It's not just wearing no clothes, it's wearing no clothes at all.

As I have explained to Charlie, I don't mean that you have to use this kind of translation everytime, a word-by-word approach. My English is not good enough to explain myself. That approach usually is wrong, but in this specific case I think that such kind of translation match the original intention of the writer. Knowing both expressions, in my opinion "stark naked" and "completamente desnuda" are equivalents both in meaning and in this context.

Answer 2

No, the wording ("... en el que aparecía una figura humana.") does not imply at all that it is a stark naked human figure.

However, since it is referring to a drawing in an Anatomy book (as indicated earlier in the same sentence), the context does convey the idea that the human figure is indeed naked without having to explicitly state it.

As per your second question, either

"una figura humana, sin ropa"

or

"una figura humana desnuda*

seem OK to me.