Translation – I
🏛️ In Ancient Times
📖 The Septuagint
The first big translation in the Western world was the translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek.
It happened in the 3rd century BCE in Alexandria, Egypt.
This translation is called the Septuagint.
It is said that 70 translators worked separately, and all versions came out the same (according to legend).
This translation helped Jews who no longer spoke Hebrew read their holy book.
Jerome (4th century CE)
Jerome translated the Bible into Latin.
His translation is called the Vulgate.
📚 Cicero (55 BCE)
.jpeg)
Cicero also translated from Greek to Latin. He believed a translator is like an artist. He said we should translate meaningfully, not count words like coins. He said a translator should not translate word-for-word, but sense-for-sense. He wrote: “Not word for word, but sense for sense.”
Kumārajīva (4th century CE)
Kumārajīva was a Buddhist monk and translator. He translated many Sanskrit Buddhist texts into Chinese. His translation of the Diamond Sutra is very famous.
Arabs and Greek Knowledge
After the Arab conquest of Greek regions, many Greek books on science and philosophy were translated into Arabic.
This helped preserve and spread ancient knowledge.
In the Middle Ages :
Toledo School of Translators (12th–13th century)
In Toledo, Spain, translators worked on Arabic, Hebrew, and Greek books.
They translated them into Latin and Spanish.
This place became a center of learning in Europe.
Roger Bacon (13th century)
Roger Bacon said a translator must:
-
Know both languages well
-
Understand the subject matter
Geoffrey Chaucer (14th century)
Chaucer translated French and Latin works into English.
He also adapted stories from the Italian writer Boccaccio.
He helped build an English literary tradition through translation.
John Wycliffe (1382–84)
Wycliffe translated the Bible from Latin to English.
This was the first full Bible in English.
He wanted ordinary people to read and understand the Bible.
Thomas Malory (1485)
-
Wrote Le Morte d’Arthur, based on King Arthur’s legends.
-
It was a free translation/adaptation of French and English stories.
-
Malory also added his own new stories, like that of Sir Gareth.
William Tyndale (1525)
-
Translated the New Testament from Hebrew and Greek into English.
-
He was one of the first to use the original biblical texts, not Latin.
-
His Bible became the first mass-produced English Bible.
-
Tyndale was executed for translating the Bible without church permission. Burned at stake.
-
His work was finished by his followers and influenced the King James Bible.
Martin Luther (1522–34)
-
Translated the Bible into German.
-
He believed a translator should always translate into their own native language.
-
His Bible helped shape modern German
17th Century: Art, Faithfulness, and Clarity in Translation
Cervantes and the Tapestry Metaphor
-
Cervantes, the famous Spanish author of Don Quixote (1605–1615), had a critical view of translation.
-
He said translations are like viewing a beautiful tapestry from the back you can see the picture, but it’s messy and unclear.
-
He believed only Greek-to-Latin translations were truly clear.
John Dryden’s Artistic View
-
John Dryden, an English poet and translator, believed that a translator is like a painter copying a person’s portrait.
-
He thought translation should feel natural in English, as if the original writer was English.
-
But he warned against changing too much a translator should be faithful to the original.
John Dryden classified translation into three types: metaphrase, paraphrase, and imitation. Metaphrase is a literal, word-for-word translation. Paraphrase focuses on conveying the general meaning rather than strict word-for-word accuracy. Imitation is a more liberal adaptation where the translator takes significant liberties with the source text. Dryden favored paraphrase as the ideal middle ground, avoiding the constraints of metaphrase and the potential for distortion in imitation.
Metaphrase:
This involves a very close, literal translation, often line-by-line and word-for-word. Dryden considered this approach too rigid and likely to produce unnatural or nonsensical text in the target language.
Paraphrase:
This method prioritizes conveying the sense and meaning of the original text while allowing for some flexibility in wording and sentence structure. Dryden believed this approach struck the right balance, capturing the essence of the original while adapting it to the target language's natural expression.
Imitation:
This is the most liberal approach, where the translator takes significant liberties with the source text, even adapting or altering its themes and ideas. Dryden viewed this as potentially diverging too far from the original author's intent.
Alexander Pope’s Neat Translation
-
Alexander Pope translated Homer’s works.
-
He tried to bring order and structure to the “wild” style of the original.
-
This shows how translators adapted texts to suit their own style and readers’ taste.
Two Key Concepts Developed:
-
Faithfulness = How truly a translation represents the original meaning.
-
Transparency = How naturally the translation sounds in the new language.
18th Century: Style over Accuracy
Johann Gottfried Herder
.jpeg)
-
German scholar Herder said that translators should always translate into their own language.
In the 18th century, many translators focused more on making texts easy to read than staying true to the original.
Alexander Tytler (1791)
.jpeg)
-
Wrote Essay on the Principles of Translation.
-
He said that reading a lot is better than relying only on dictionaries when learning to translate well.
Onufry Andrzej Kopczyński (1783)
-
A Polish scholar who said a translator must not only read but also listen to the spoken language to fully understand it.
Ignacy Krasicki (1803)
-
A Polish poet and novelist, he translated from French and Greek.
-
In his essay On Translating Books, he wrote that translation is a difficult and noble art, meant for talented and thoughtful people.
-
He believed translating is a way to serve the country and help people learn.
19th Century: Accuracy and Style
-
In the 1800s, translators became more serious about being accurate.
-
Their goal became: “The text, the whole text, and nothing but the text.”
-
Victorians added footnotes to explain difficult parts, but still wanted readers to feel the work was foreign.
-
A famous exception:
-
Edward FitzGerald translated Persian poems (The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám) in 1859.
-
He changed a lot, but his version is still the most popular.
Key Thinker: Friedrich Schleiermacher (1813)
-
He said there are two ways to translate:
-
Domestication = Make the text sound like it was written in the reader’s language.
-
Foreignization = Keep the feeling of the original culture.
-
-
He preferred foreignization: moving the reader towards the author.
Yan Fu’s 3 Rules (1898)
A Chinese scholar who translated social science books:
-
Faithfulness – Be true to the original.
-
Expressiveness – Make sure the reader understands.
-
Elegance – Use good, educated language.
He believed expressiveness was the most important.
20th Century: Interpretation and Theory
-
Translators now believed translation involved interpretation and personal choice.
Joseph Conrad & Aniela Zagórska
-
Conrad told his niece: “Don’t just translate word for word. Use your feeling and make it sound natural.”
Jorge Luis Borges
-
He translated famous writers (Kafka, Woolf, Poe).
-
Believed a translation could:
-
Be better than the original
-
Be different, and still be right
-
Translation Studies Becomes a Field
-
In 1972, James S. Holmes defined “Translation Studies” as an academic discipline.
-
It became a field that combines literature, linguistics, philosophy, history, and more.
Interpreting Becomes Separate
-
Interpreting = Spoken translation.
-
Translation = Written.
-
Interpreting became a separate area of study with a focus on training and practice.
21st Century: New Challenges & Tools
-
Translators now shape languages by borrowing words and ideas.
-
Translation Studies includes computer science, AI, legal studies, media, etc.
-
The internet created a big market for translation:
-
Good: more work, global clients
-
Bad: low pay, unpaid “volunteer” jobs
-
Modern Tools
-
MT = Machine Translation (like Google Translate)
-
CAT = Computer-Assisted Translation
Still, many translators want to be seen as artists, not machines.
Eco, Umberto. Mouse or Rat? Translation as Negotiation. Translated by Alastair McEwen, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003.Nida, Eugene A., and Charles R. Taber. The Theory and Practice of Translation. E. J. Brill, 1969.
Venuti, Lawrence. The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation. Routledge, 1995.
No comments:
Post a Comment