Translation

Translation: Bridging Languages and Cultures

Translation is the communication of meaning through an equivalent text. It’s a process that has been integral to human interaction for centuries, yet it remains complex and multifaceted. The English language distinguishes between translating written texts and interpreting oral or signed communication, each requiring different skills and approaches. Translators risk introducing source-language elements but have also enriched target languages with useful calques and loanwords.

Imagine a bridge connecting two distant lands; that’s what translation does. It allows ideas to flow freely across linguistic barriers, ensuring that the essence of one culture can be understood by another. The translation process can be laborious, and efforts to automate it began in the 1940s with early machine translations.

Modern technology has facilitated global translation markets and language localization, making communication more accessible than ever before. But despite these advancements, the art of translation remains a blend of science and creativity, requiring translators to navigate the nuances of both source and target languages.

The Etymology of Translation

The word ‘translation’ comes from Latin translatio (carrying across). Alternative European words for translation derive from trāductiō (leading across) or trans + dūcō (leading). This etymology captures the essence of what translation does: it carries meaning and ideas from one language to another, leading them across cultural boundaries.

Theories of Translation

Western theory: Ancient Greeks distinguished between metaphrase (literal translation) and paraphrase. John Dryden described translation as blending these two modes in selecting counterparts for source-language expressions. He cautioned against imitation, advising translators to choose expressions that do not vitiate the sense.

This general formulation of the central concept of translation—equivalence—is as adequate as any that has been proposed since Cicero and Horace, who cautioned against translating ‘word for word’ in 1st-century-BCE Rome. Despite theoretical diversity, the actual practice of translation has hardly changed since antiquity, with translators generally showing flexibility in seeking equivalents—’literal’ where possible, paraphrastic where necessary—for original meaning and crucial values determined from context.

Translators have sought to preserve context by reproducing sememes and word order, adjusting syntax characteristics for target languages, borrowing terms, and providing glosses when needed. The exchange of calques and loanwords has made few concepts ‘untranslatable’ among modern European languages. However, translating cultural concepts with no equivalent can be challenging, requiring glosses.

Greater contact between languages increases the ratio of metaphrase to paraphrase in translation. Despite this, etymology is sometimes misleading as a guide to current meaning. The translator’s role has been likened to carrying values between cultures and creating art, with comparisons made to musicians and actors. L. G. Kelly states that translating only towards one’s own language has been considered axiomatic since Johann Gottfried Herder in the 18th century.

The Challenges of Translation

Compounding the demands on translators is the fact that no dictionary or thesaurus can be a fully adequate guide in translation. Alexander Tytler emphasized that assiduous reading is a more comprehensive guide to a language than dictionaries, while Onufry Kopczyński suggested listening to spoken languages as well.

Ignacy Krasicki described translation as an art estimable and difficult, requiring specialized skills and a service to one’s country. Western colonialism led to the replacement of non-Western translation traditions, but some remain important for understanding ancient or medieval records. Chinese and related translation traditions retain unique theories and philosophies despite heavy influence from Western traditions.

Traditions of translating material in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Assyria, Anatolia, and Israel date back several millennia, with partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh into Southwest Asian languages. The Babylonians were among the first to establish translation as a profession, and Arabic translations began in the late seventh century CE.

Translations from Greek and Coptic texts into Arabic started earlier than previously thought, and Bayt al-Hikma was a leading center for translation in Baghdad during the eighth century. European scholars recognized the benefits of translating lost Greek and Roman texts into European languages by the eleventh century, with the establishment of the Escuela de Traductores de Toledo in Spain.

A separate tradition of translation emerged in South, Southeast, and East Asia, particularly connected to Buddhist texts and Chinese governance. Some special aspects of translating from Chinese are illustrated in Perry Link’s discussion of translating Wang Wei’s work. Art of classical Chinese poetry must be set aside as untranslatable, including the internal structure of characters, calligraphy, and specific rhythms.

Modern Translation Practices

The letter-versus-spirit dilemma is a common problem for translators, with some prioritizing literal detail over the poem’s intended meaning. Chinese characters offer advantages in terms of subjectlessness, numberlessness, and tenselessness, which can be both beneficial and challenging for translators.

Omitting subjects or using passive voice can help preserve the universal and immediate effect of the original line. The absence of verb tense in Chinese creates ambiguity and advantage for poets but poses challenges for translators. Link proposes a kind of uncertainty principle that may be applicable not only to translation from the Chinese language, but to all translation.

Dilemmas about translation do not have definitive right answers (although there can be unambiguously wrong ones if misreadings of the original are involved). Any translation must pass through the mind of a translator, containing its own store of perceptions, memories, and values. The Islamic world saw significant expansion in Arabic translation after the creation of the Arabic script in the 5th century.

Arab translation initially focused on politics and diplomacy before shifting to classical Greek and Persian works, as well as some Chinese and Indian texts. This drew heavily from Near Eastern traditions and influenced Western translation traditions. After centuries of close contacts and exchanges, Europeans began studying Arabic and Persian translations of classical works and scientific writings in the 19th century.

The advent of printing transformed an illiterate society into a partly literate one, giving an expanding elite access to information on various topics. More than six hundred newspapers and periodicals were founded in Egypt between 1880 and 1908. A translator who contributed to the advance of Islamic Enlightenment was Rifaa al-Tahtawi. He spent five years in Paris teaching religion to Muslim students and later became head of a school of languages, initiating a program to translate over 2,000 European and Turkish volumes.

This translation transformed Arabic and Ottoman Turkish languages, introducing new words and simplified syntax. Muhammad Abduh was an influential liberal Islamic thinker who visited Herbert Spencer and shared similar ideas about society as an organism with its own laws of evolution. The Muslim Brotherhood emerged in Egypt after World War I, and regimes led by army officers came to power in Iran and Turkey.

The aspirations of translators and modernizers like Muhammad Abduh were largely overshadowed by retrograde currents. Fidelity and transparency are dual ideals in translation, often at odds with each other. Fidelity refers to accurate rendering of the source text’s meaning without distortion, while transparency refers to appearance as if written in the target language.

A faithful translation may not be idiomatic, and a transparent translation may not be faithful. The criteria for judging the fidelity and transparency of translations vary according to context and subject matter. Translators may produce literal translations or adapt source texts to fit local customs and mores. Western translation practice emphasizes ‘fidelity’ and ‘transparency,’ but this has varied throughout history.

Back-Translation and Its Uses

The process of back-translation involves retranslating a translated text without reference to the original. Researchers may undertake back-translation to reconstruct lost originals, such as the novel ‘The Saragossa Manuscript.’ To better understand Galen, scholars have attempted back-translation of his works to reconstruct the original Greek.

Historians suspect that certain documents were originally written in a different language and seek to prove this through back-translation. For example, the Till Eulenspiegel folk tales were likely originally written in Low German but translated into High German. Supporters of Aramaic primacy argue that difficult passages in the New Testament make more sense when back-translated to Aramaic.

The 2nd century Gnostic Gospel of Judas was likely originally written in Greek, despite surviving only in Coptic. John Dryden’s use of back-translation illustrates the influence of translators on language and literary styles. He created a rule against ‘preposition stranding’ by objecting to Ben Jonson’s phrase.

Skills Required for Translators

A competent translator requires a range of skills, including:

• A good knowledge of both languages
• An excellent command of the target language
• Familiarity with the subject matter and etymological correlates
• A sense of when to metaphrase and paraphrase

A competent translator is not only bilingual but bicultural, and requires a deep understanding of connotations, cultural references, and linguistic conventions. Translation involves interpretation, which can be challenging. A good translation offers an interpretation, rather than a reproduction of the original text.

Interpreting and Sworn Translations

Interpreting facilitates oral or sign-language communication between speakers of different languages. Interpreters have played crucial roles in human history, such as La Malinche and Sacagawea. Sworn translation aims for legal equivalence between documents written in different languages.

The Role of Technology

Machine-translation tools such as Google Translate produce rough translations that approximate the meaning of the source text. However, relying exclusively on machine translation ignores the context-embedded nature of human language and the need for human review and editing to ensure publishable-quality translation.

Translation memory techniques and terminology-management tools speed up human translation by memorizing and committing translations to a database, leading to cost savings and consistency. Such research is necessary for machine-translation software to produce meaningful output.

The Future of Translation

As languages evolve, texts become difficult to understand, leading to modern translations. Modern translation is applied to literature from classical languages such as Latin or Greek, as well as literature from earlier stages of the same language. This process involves literary scholarship and textual revision, resulting in changes that can be substantial.

Modern translation is applicable to any language with a long literary history. For example, the 11th-century Tale of Genji is generally read in modern translation. Translators bring their own skills, opinions, and stylistic sensibilities to the text, making every translation unique.

The Art of Literary Translation

Translating literary works requires knowledge of various genres, authors, and thought patterns. The most difficult work to translate is the Wen Xuan, with 130 authors to familiarize oneself with. Singing translations are closely linked to poetry translation and require adherence to verse structure and rhythm.

Religious texts have played a significant role in history, with translators often adjusting their work to convey the intended religious values. The Septuagint is an example of early recorded translation, and Jerome’s Vulgate translation is considered one of the greatest in history. Some early Christian authors interpreted biblical texts similarly to Pope Francis.

The Protestant Reformation led to translations of the Bible into vernacular European languages, contributing to the split between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. Translations like Martin Luther’s German (1522), Jakub Wujek’s Polish (1599), William Tyndale’s English (New Testament, 1526), and the King James Version’s English (1611) had lasting effects.

William Tyndale was convicted of heresy and strangled to death for translating the Bible into English. John Wycliffe’s works were also burned after his death in 1384. Debate over translations continues, as seen in the King James Only movement.

The Challenges of Translating Poetry

Views on translating poetry vary widely, depending on factors such as the degree of latitude desired by the translator and how much suggestiveness and imagery can be recaptured in the target language. Some linguists and authors consider poetry to be untranslatable, while others believe that a good translation must convey form and structure alongside literal meaning.

Contemporary literary translators often approach verse translation with a concept of language as a ‘third universe’ existing midway between empirical reality and internalized structures of consciousness. The best I can do as a poet is to reflect one into the other. The sea reflects the sky but remains liquid and ripples with waves.

To translate is not to reproduce content but to spark the original’s fire. Translation watches over the maturing process of language and birth pangs of its own. Poetry gets lost in translation, but an assemblage of words can contain poetry too. Descriptive book titles inform, while symbolic ones indicate theme or atmosphere.

The translation of plays poses problems with actors, speech duration, and theatrical traditions. Successful play translators must simplify sentence structures for modern audiences. In translating Chinese literature, finding true fidelity is a challenge due to the subject’s creativity. Poetry can’t be made to sing through mathematics alone; it requires translator creativity.

Conclusion

The art of translation is as complex and nuanced as the languages it connects. It bridges cultures, shapes languages, and preserves history. As we continue to navigate an increasingly globalized world, the role of translators becomes ever more crucial. Their work ensures that ideas, stories, and emotions can transcend linguistic boundaries, fostering understanding and connection across the globe.