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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 July 2024
During the past ten or twenty years this question has begun to concern a great many thinkers. The interest which it holds for our time is not only of an academic order. The vigorous growth of various forms of teaching of translation and interpreting; and the setting under way of gigantic programs of translation by electronic machines (to cite only two “spectacular” facts) illustrate its practical importance.
1 Is translation an art (Theodore H. Savory, The Art of Translation, London, Jonathan Cape, 1957 — Antokolski et al., The Art of Translation (Masterstvo perevoda), Moscow, 1959); a science (Eugene A. Nida, Toward a Science of Trans lating, U.S.A., in publication); should it be studied as a branch of stylistics (Vinay and Darbelnet, Stylistique comparée du français et de L'anglais - Méthode de traduction, Paris, Didier, 1958)? Should one conceive of it, above and beyond the variation of types, as a linguistic operation, thereby studying it within the framework of linguistics (Andrei V. Fedorov, Introduction to a Theory of Translation, Moscow, 1953) or, on the contrary, is it necessary to carry on such studies within the framework of literary research when it is a question of literary translation (Anto kolski et al., Problems of Literary Translation (Voprosy khudojestvennogo pere voda), Moscow, 1955)? Does analysis of literary translation (Georges Mounin, Les belles infidèles, Paris, Cahiers du Sud, 1955 - Reuben A. Brower et al., On Translation, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1959), scientific and technical translation (R. W. Jumpelt, Die Uebersetzung maturwissenschaftlicher und technischer Literatur, Berlin, Langenscheidt, 1961), or automatic translation (An thony G. Oettinger, Automatic Language Translation, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1960) lead to the theory of translation?
2 "Truchement" ("interpreter") comes from tardjouman (drogman) which goes back to the Assyrian ragamou (to speak). In Chinese "to translate" (i *) is composed of the sign i ** (to observe, to lead) and of yen*** which means "word", "to speak". In Latin, the usual word is interpres, and St. Jerome has left us a De optimo genere interpretandi which deals with translation in general. Martin Luther, in his Sendbrief vom Dolmetschen (a family of words relating to Middle talami and which has given us tolmatch in Russian (equivalent to the French "truchement"), tlumacz in Polish etc.) states specifically: "It is not literature which should be consulted… but the mother at the hearth, the children in the street, the common man in the marketplace, looking them in the mouth to see how they are speaking-that is where translating begins."
3 Describing "interpreting" in his own fashion, an American author (K. W. H. Scholz, The Art of Translation, Philadelphia, 1918) concludes: "Translation is more than that. It properly begins where interpreting ends." The phenomenon of interpreting at conferences and the development of international contacts have somewhat shaken this final assurance. With the help of radio and cinema may we not look forward to a renewal of spoken civilization?
4 This is what we have tried to sketch out in La traduction dans le monde moderne (Geneva, Georg, 1956).
5 This is what is new in works such as those by Oettinger (Automatic Language Translation) and especially by R. W. Jumpelt (Die Uebersetzung naturwissenschaft licher und technischer Literatur) already mentioned, and Problèmes théoriques de traduction (to be published by N.R.F., Paris) by G. Mounin.
6 Data regarding this is certainly offered by E. Nida's work (Toward a Science of Translating) which systematically takes account of the experience acquired by Biblical translation into innumerable idioms.
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