Translation Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==Literary translation== [[File:Performing Without a Stage - The Art of Literary Translation - by Robert Wechsler.pdf|thumb|upright|A 1998 nonfiction book by Robert Wechsler on literary translation as a performative, rather than creative, art]] Translation of [[literature|literary works]] ([[novel]]s, [[short story|short stories]], [[theatre|plays]], [[poetry|poems]], etc.) is considered a literary pursuit in its own right. Notable in [[Canadian literature]] ''specifically'' as translators are figures such as [[Sheila Fischman]], [[Robert Dickson (writer)|Robert Dickson]], and [[Linda Gaboriau]]; and the Canadian [[Governor General's Awards]] annually present prizes for the best English-to-French and French-to-English literary translations. Other writers, among many who have made a name for themselves as literary translators, include [[Vasily Zhukovsky]], [[Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński]], [[Vladimir Nabokov]], [[Jorge Luis Borges]], [[Robert Stiller]], [[Lydia Davis]], [[Haruki Murakami]], [[Achy Obejas]], and [[Jhumpa Lahiri]]. In the 2010s a substantial gender imbalance was noted in literary translation into English,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/dispatches/article/where-are-the-women-in-translation|title=Where Are the Women in Translation?|last=Anderson|first=Alison|date=14 May 2013|website=Words Without Borders|access-date=28 July 2018}}</ref> with far more male writers being translated than women writers. In 2014 Meytal Radzinski launched the ''Women in Translation'' campaign to address this.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://literarytranslators.wordpress.com/2016/07/25/women-in-translation-an-interview-witth-meytal-radzinski/|title=Women in Translation: An Interview with Meytal Radzinski|date=25 July 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thebookseller.com/tags-bookseller/meytal-radzinski|title=Meytal Radzinski - The Bookseller|website=www.thebookseller.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://biblibio.blogspot.com/2018/07/exclusion-is-choice-bias-in-best-of.html|title=Biblibio: Exclusion is a choice - Bias in "Best of" lists|first=Meytal|last=Radzinski|date=3 July 2018}}</ref> ===History=== The first important translation in the West was that of the [[Septuagint]], a collection of [[Jew]]ish Scriptures translated into early [[Koine Greek]] in [[Alexandria]] between the 3rd and 1st centuries BCE. The dispersed Jews had forgotten their ancestral language and needed Greek versions (translations) of their Scriptures.<ref>J.M. Cohen, p. 12.</ref> Throughout the [[Middle Ages]], Latin was the ''[[lingua franca]]'' of the western learned world. The 9th-century [[Alfred the Great]], king of [[Wessex]] in [[England]], was far ahead of his time in commissioning [[vernacular]] [[Anglo-Saxon language|Anglo-Saxon]] translations of [[Bede]]'s ''[[Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum|Ecclesiastical History]]'' and [[Boethius]]' ''[[Consolation of Philosophy]]''. Meanwhile, the [[Christian Church]] frowned on even partial adaptations of [[St. Jerome]]'s [[Vulgate]] of {{Circa|384 CE}},<ref>J.M Cohen, pp. 12-13.</ref> the standard Latin Bible. In [[Asia]], the spread of [[Buddhism]] led to large-scale ongoing translation efforts spanning well over a thousand years. The [[Tangut Empire]] was especially efficient in such efforts; exploiting the then newly invented [[block printing]], and with the full support of the government (contemporary sources describe the Emperor and his mother personally contributing to the translation effort, alongside sages of various nationalities), the Tanguts took mere decades to translate volumes that had taken the [[China|Chinese]] centuries to render.{{Citation needed|date=June 2008}} The [[Arabs]] undertook [[Graeco-Arabic translation movement|large-scale efforts at translation]]. Having conquered the [[Ancient Greece|Greek]] world, they made Arabic versions of its philosophical and scientific works. During the Middle Ages, translations of some of these Arabic versions [[Latin translations of the 12th century|were made into Latin]], chiefly at [[Córdoba, Spain|Córdoba]] in [[Spain]].<ref name="Cohen13">J.M. Cohen, p. 13.</ref> King [[Alfonso X of Castile|Alfonso X the Wise]] of [[Kingdom of Castile|Castile]] in the 13th century promoted this effort by founding a ''[[Toledo School of Translators|Schola Traductorum]]'' (School of Translation) in [[Toledo, Spain|Toledo]]. There Arabic texts, Hebrew texts, and Latin texts were translated into the other tongues by Muslim, Jewish, and Christian scholars, who also argued the merits of their respective religions. Latin translations of Greek and original Arab works of scholarship and science helped advance European [[Scholasticism]], and thus European science and culture. The broad historic trends in Western translation practice may be illustrated on the example of translation into the English language. [[File:Chaucer Hoccleve.png|thumb|upright|[[Geoffrey Chaucer]]]] The first fine translations into English were made in the 14th century by [[Geoffrey Chaucer]], who adapted from the [[Italian language|Italian]] of [[Giovanni Boccaccio]] in his own ''[[Knight's Tale]]'' and ''[[Troilus and Criseyde]]''; began a translation of the French-language ''[[Roman de la Rose]]''; and completed a translation of Boethius from the Latin. Chaucer founded an English [[poetry|poetic]] tradition on [[Literary adaptation|adaptations]] and translations from those earlier-established [[literary language]]s.<ref name=Cohen13/> The first great English translation was the [[Wycliffe Bible]] ({{circa|1382}}), which showed the weaknesses of an underdeveloped English [[prose]]. Only at the end of the 15th century did the great age of English prose translation begin with [[Thomas Malory]]'s ''[[Le Morte d'Arthur]]''—an adaptation of [[Arthurian romance]]s so free that it can, in fact, hardly be called a true translation. The first great [[Tudor period|Tudor]] translations are, accordingly, the [[Tyndale Bible|Tyndale New Testament]] (1525), which influenced the [[Authorized Version]] (1611), and [[Lord Berners]]' version of [[Jean Froissart]]'s ''Chronicles'' (1523–25).<ref name=Cohen13/> [[File:Portrait of Marsilio Ficino at the Duomo Firence 2.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Marsilio Ficino]]]] Meanwhile, in [[Renaissance]] [[Italy]], a new period in the history of translation had opened in [[Florence]] with the arrival, at the court of [[Cosimo de' Medici]], of the [[Byzantine]] scholar [[Georgius Gemistus Pletho]] shortly before the fall of [[Constantinople]] to the Turks (1453). A Latin translation of [[Plato]]'s works was undertaken by [[Marsilio Ficino]]. This and [[Erasmus]]' Latin edition of the [[New Testament]] led to a new attitude to translation. For the first time, readers demanded rigor of rendering, as philosophical and religious beliefs depended on the exact words of Plato, [[Aristotle]] and [[Jesus]].<ref name=Cohen13/> Non-scholarly literature, however, continued to rely on ''adaptation''. [[France]]'s ''[[Pléiade]]'', England's Tudor poets, and the [[Elizabethan]] translators adapted themes by [[Horace]], [[Ovid]], [[Petrarch]] and modern Latin writers, forming a new poetic style on those models. The English poets and translators sought to supply a new public, created by the rise of a [[middle class]] and the development of [[printing]], with works such as the original authors ''would have written'', had they been writing in England in that day.<ref name=Cohen13/> The Elizabethan period of translation saw considerable progress beyond mere paraphrase toward an ideal of [[Stylistics (linguistics)|stylistic]] equivalence, but even to the end of this period, which actually reached to the middle of the 17th century, there was no concern for [[Words|verbal]] [[accuracy]].<ref name="Cohen14">J.M. Cohen, p. 14.</ref> In the second half of the 17th century, the poet John Dryden sought to make [[Virgil]] speak "in words such as he would probably have written if he were living and an Englishman". As great as Dryden's poem is, however, one is reading Dryden, and not experiencing the Roman poet's concision. Similarly, [[Homer]] arguably suffers from [[Alexander Pope]]'s endeavor to reduce the Greek poet's "wild paradise" to order. Both works live on as worthy ''English'' epics, more than as a point of access to the Latin or Greek.<ref name=Cohen14/> [[File:Edward FitzGerald.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Edward FitzGerald (poet)|Edward FitzGerald]]]] Throughout the 18th century, the watchword of translators was ease of reading. Whatever they did not understand in a text, or thought might bore readers, they omitted. They cheerfully assumed that their own style of expression was the best, and that texts should be made to conform to it in translation. For scholarship they cared no more than had their predecessors, and they did not shrink from making translations from translations in third languages, or from languages that they hardly knew, or—as in the case of [[James Macpherson]]'s "translations" of [[Ossian]]—from texts that were actually of the "translator's" own composition.<ref name=Cohen14/> [[File:Benjamin Jowett - Imagines philologorum.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Benjamin Jowett]]]] The 19th century brought new standards of accuracy and style. In regard to accuracy, observes J.M. Cohen, the policy became "the text, the whole text, and nothing but the text", except for any [[bawdy]] passages and the addition of copious explanatory [[footnote]]s.{{efn|For instance, Henry Benedict Mackey's translation of [[St. Francis de Sales]]'s "[http://www.ccel.org/ccel/desales/love.html Treatise on the Love of God]" consistently omits the saint's analogies comparing God to a nursing mother, references to Bible stories such as the rape of Tamar, and so forth.}} In regard to style, the [[Victorian era|Victorians]]' aim, achieved through far-reaching metaphrase (literality) or ''pseudo''-metaphrase, was to constantly remind readers that they were reading a ''foreign'' classic. An exception was the outstanding translation in this period, [[Edward FitzGerald (poet)|Edward FitzGerald]]'s ''[[Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam|Rubaiyat]]'' of [[Omar Khayyam]] (1859), which achieved its Oriental flavor largely by using Persian names and discreet Biblical echoes and actually drew little of its material from the Persian original.<ref name=Cohen14/> In advance of the 20th century, a new pattern was set in 1871 by [[Benjamin Jowett]], who translated Plato into simple, straightforward language. Jowett's example was not followed, however, until well into the new century, when accuracy rather than style became the principal criterion.<ref name=Cohen14/> ===Modern translation=== As a language evolves, texts in an earlier version of the language—original texts, or old translations—may become difficult for modern readers to understand. Such a text may therefore be translated into more modern language, producing a "modern translation" (e.g., a "modern English translation" or "modernized translation"). Such modern rendering is applied either to literature from classical languages such as Latin or Greek, notably to the Bible (see "[[Modern English Bible translations]]"), or to literature from an earlier stage of the same language, as with the works of [[William Shakespeare]] (which are largely understandable by a modern audience, though with some difficulty) or with [[Geoffrey Chaucer]]'s [[Middle English|Middle-English]] ''[[The Canterbury Tales|Canterbury Tales]]'' (which is understandable to most modern readers only through heavy dependence on footnotes). In 2015 the [[Oregon Shakespeare Festival]] commissioned professional translation of the entire Shakespeare canon, including disputed works such as ''[[Edward III (play)|Edward III]]'',<ref>{{cite news |last1=Schuessler |first1=Jennifer |title=Translating Shakespeare? 36 Playwrights Taketh the Big Risk |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/02/theater/oregon-shakespeare-festival-play-on.html |access-date=11 August 2019 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=30 September 2016}}</ref> into contemporary vernacular English; in 2019, off-off-Broadway, the canon was premiered in a month-long series of staged readings.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Schuessler |first1=Jennifer |title=A Shakespeare Festival Presents Modern Translations. Cue the Debate (Again). |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/03/theater/shakespeare-modern-english-play-on-festival.html |access-date=11 August 2019 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=3 April 2019}}</ref> Modern translation is applicable to any language with a long literary history. For example, in Japanese the 11th-century ''[[The Tale of Genji|Tale of Genji]]'' is generally read in modern translation (see "[[The Tale of Genji#Modern readership|''Genji:'' modern readership]]"). Modern translation often involves literary scholarship and textual revision, as there is frequently not one single canonical text. This is particularly noteworthy in the case of the Bible and Shakespeare, where modern scholarship can result in substantive textual changes. [[Anna North]] writes: "Translating the long-dead language [[Homer]] used — a variant of [[ancient Greek]] called Homeric Greek — into contemporary English is no easy task, and translators bring their own skills, opinions, and stylistic sensibilities to the text. The result is that every translation is different, almost a new poem in itself." An example is [[Emily Wilson (classicist)|Emily Wilson]]'s 2017 translation of Homer's ''[[Odyssey]]'', where by conscious choice Wilson "lays bare the morals of its time and place, and invites us to consider how different they are from our own, and how similar."<ref>{{Cite web|last=North|first=Anna|date=20 November 2017|title=Historically, men translated the Odyssey. Here's what happened when a woman took the job.|url=https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/11/20/16651634/odyssey-emily-wilson-translation-first-woman-english|access-date=9 September 2020|website=Vox}}</ref> Modern translation meets with opposition from some traditionalists. In English, some readers [[King James Only movement|prefer]] the [[Authorized King James Version]] of the Bible to modern translations, and Shakespeare in the original of {{circa|1600}} to modern translations. An opposite process involves translating modern literature into classical languages, for the purpose of [[extensive reading]] (for examples, see "[[List of Latin translations of modern literature]]"). ===Poetry=== [[File:Hofstadter2002B.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Douglas Hofstadter|Hofstadter]]]] [[File:Roman Jakobson.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Roman Jakobson|Jakobson]]]] [[File:Vladimir Nabokov 1973.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Vladimir Nabokov|Nabokov]]]] Views on the possibility of satisfactorily translating poetry show a broad spectrum, depending partly on the degree of latitude desired by the translator in regard to a poem's formal features (rhythm, rhyme, verse form, etc.), but also relating to how much of the suggestiveness and imagery in the host poem can be recaptured or approximated in the target language. In his 1997 book ''[[Le Ton beau de Marot]]'', [[Douglas Hofstadter]] argued that a good translation of a poem must convey as much as possible not only of its literal meaning but also of its form and structure (meter, rhyme or alliteration scheme, etc.).<ref>A discussion of Hofstadter's otherwise latitudinarian views on translation is found in Tony Dokoupil, "[http://www.newsweek.com/id/195684 Translation: Pardon My French: You Suck at This]," ''[[Newsweek]]'', 18 May 2009, p. 10.</ref> The [[Russia]]n-born [[linguist]] and [[semiotician]] [[Roman Jakobson]], however, had in his 1959 paper "[[On Linguistic Aspects of Translation]]", declared that "poetry by definition [is] untranslatable". [[Vladimir Nabokov]], another Russian-born author, took a view similar to Jakobson's. He considered rhymed, metrical, versed poetry to be in principle untranslatable and therefore rendered his 1964 English translation of [[Alexander Pushkin]]'s [[Eugene Onegin#Into English|''Eugene Onegin'' in prose]]. Hofstadter, in ''[[Le Ton beau de Marot]]'', criticized Nabokov's attitude toward verse translation. In 1999 Hofstadter published his own translation of ''Eugene Onegin'', in verse form. However, a number of more contemporary literary translators of poetry lean toward [[Alexander von Humboldt]]'s notion of language as a "third universe" existing "midway between the phenomenal reality of the 'empirical world' and the internalized structures of consciousness."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Steiner, George.|title=After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation.|date=2013|publisher=Open Road Media|isbn=978-1-4804-1185-2|pages=85|oclc=892798474}}</ref> Perhaps this is what poet [[Sholeh Wolpé]], translator of the 12th-century Iranian epic poem ''[[The Conference of the Birds]]'', means when she writes: <blockquote>Twelfth-century Persian and contemporary English are as different as sky and sea. The best I can do as a poet is to reflect one into the other. The sea can reflect the sky with its moving stars, shifting clouds, gestations of the moon, and migrating birds—but ultimately the sea is not the sky. By nature, it is liquid. It ripples. There are waves. If you are a fish living in the sea, you can only understand the sky if its reflection becomes part of the water. Therefore, this translation of ''The Conference of the Birds'', while faithful to the original text, aims at its re-creation into a still living and breathing work of literature.<ref>{{Cite book|last=ʻAṭṭār, Farīd al-Dīn, -approximately 1230|title=The conference of the birds|others=Wolpé, Sholeh|year=2017|isbn=978-0-393-29218-3|edition=First|location=New York|pages=24|oclc=951070853}}</ref></blockquote>Poet [[Sherod Santos]] writes: "The task is not to reproduce the content, but with the flint and the steel of one's own language to spark what Robert Lowell has called 'the fire and finish of the original.{{'"}}<ref>{{Cite book|last=Santos, Sherod, 1948-|title=A poetry of two minds|date=2000|publisher=University of Georgia Press|isbn=0-8203-2204-0|pages=107|oclc=43114993}}</ref> According to [[Walter Benjamin]]:<blockquote>While a poet's words endure in his own language, even the greatest translation is destined to become part of the growth of its own language and eventually to perish with its renewal. Translation is so far removed from being the sterile equation of two dead languages that of all literary forms it is the one charged with the special mission of watching over the maturing process of the original language and the birth pangs of its own.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Benjamin, Walter, 1892-1940.|title=Selected writings|date=1996–2003|publisher=Belknap Press|others=Bullock, Marcus Paul, 1944-, Jennings, Michael William., Eiland, Howard., Smith, Gary, 1954-|isbn=978-0-674-00896-0|location=Cambridge, Mass.|pages=256|oclc=34705134}}</ref></blockquote>Gregory Hays, in the course of discussing [[ancient Rome|Roman]] adapted translations of [[ancient Greek literature]], makes approving reference to some views on the translating of poetry expressed by [[David Bellos]], an accomplished French-to-English translator. Hays writes: {{blockquote|Among the ''idées reçues'' [received ideas] skewered by David Bellos is the old saw that "poetry is what gets lost in translation." The saying is often attributed to [[Robert Frost]], but as Bellos notes, the attribution is as dubious as the idea itself. A translation is an assemblage of words, and as such it can contain as much or as little poetry as any other such assemblage. The [[Japanese people|Japanese]] even have a word (''chōyaku'', roughly "hypertranslation") to designate a version that deliberately improves on the original.<ref>Gregory Hays, "Found in Translation" (review of [[Denis Feeney]], ''Beyond Greek: The Beginnings of Latin Literature'', Harvard University Press), ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'', vol. LXIV, no. 11 (22 June 2017), p. 58.</ref>}} ===Book titles=== Book-title translations can be either descriptive or symbolic. Descriptive book titles, for example [[Antoine de Saint-Exupéry]]'s ''[[Le Petit Prince]]'' (The Little Prince), are meant to be informative, and can name the protagonist, and indicate the theme of the book. An example of a symbolic book title is [[Stieg Larsson]]'s ''[[The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo]]'', whose original Swedish title is ''Män som hatar kvinnor'' (Men Who Hate Women). Such symbolic book titles usually indicate the theme, issues, or atmosphere of the work. When translators are working with long book titles, the translated titles are often shorter and indicate the theme of the book.<ref>Jiří Levý, ''The Art of Translation'', Philadelphia, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2011, p. 122.</ref> ===Plays=== The translation of plays poses many problems such as the added element of actors, speech duration, translation literalness, and the relationship between the arts of drama and acting. Successful play translators are able to create language that allows the actor and the playwright to work together effectively.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Carlson |first1=Harry G. |year=1964|title=Problems in Play Translation |journal=Educational Theatre Journal |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=55–58 [55] |doi=10.2307/3204378 |jstor=3204378}}</ref> Play translators must also take into account several other aspects: the final performance, varying theatrical and acting traditions, characters' speaking styles, modern theatrical discourse, and even the acoustics of the auditorium, i.e., whether certain words will have the same effect on the new audience as they had on the original audience.<ref>Jiří Levý, ''The Art of Translation'', Philadelphia, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2011, pp. 129-39.</ref> Audiences in Shakespeare's time were more accustomed than modern playgoers to actors having longer stage time.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Carlson |first1=Harry G. |year=1964 |title=Problems in Play Translation |journal=Educational Theatre Journal |volume=16 |issue=1|pages=55–58 [56] |doi=10.2307/3204378 |jstor=3204378}}</ref> Modern translators tend to simplify the sentence structures of earlier dramas, which included compound sentences with intricate hierarchies of subordinate clauses.<ref>Jiří Levý, ''The Art of Translation'', Philadelphia, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2011, p. 129.</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kruger |first1=Loren |year=2007 |title=Keywords and Contexts: Translating Theatre Theory |journal=Theatre Journal |volume=59 |issue=3 |pages=355–58 |jstor=25070054 |doi=10.1353/tj.2007.0146 |s2cid=191603013}}</ref> ===Chinese literature=== In translating Chinese literature, translators struggle to find true fidelity in translating into the target language. In ''The Poem Behind the Poem'', Barnstone argues that poetry "can't be made to sing through a mathematics that doesn't factor in the creativity of the translator".<ref>Frank Stewart, ''The Poem Behind the Poem'', Washington, Copper Canyon Press, 2004.</ref> A notable piece of work translated into English is the ''[[Wen Xuan]]'', an anthology representative of major works of Chinese literature. Translating this work requires a high knowledge of the [[genre]]s presented in the book, such as poetic forms, various prose types including memorials, letters, proclamations, praise poems, edicts, and historical, philosophical and political disquisitions, threnodies and laments for the dead, and examination essays. Thus the literary translator must be familiar with the writings, lives, and thought of a large number of its 130 authors, making the ''Wen Xuan'' one of the most difficult literary works to translate.<ref>Eugene Eoyang and Lin Yao-fu, ''Translating Chinese Literature'', Indiana University Press, 1995, pp. 42–43.</ref> ===Sung texts=== <!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:Catherine Winkworth.PNG|thumb|left|100px|[[Catherine Winkworth]]]] --> Translation of a text that is sung in vocal music for the purpose of singing in another language—sometimes called "singing translation"—is closely linked to translation of poetry because most vocal music, at least in the Western tradition, is set to [[Verse (popular music)|verse]], especially verse in regular patterns with [[rhyme]]. (Since the late 19th century, musical setting of [[prose]] and [[free verse]] has also been practiced in some [[art music]], though popular music tends to remain conservative in its retention of [[stanza]]ic forms with or without [[refrain]]s.) A rudimentary example of translating poetry for singing is church [[hymn]]s, such as the German [[chorale]]s translated into English by [[Catherine Winkworth]].{{efn|For another example of poetry translation, including translation of sung texts, see [http://vagalecs.narod.ru/ Rhymes from Russia].}} Translation of sung texts is generally much more restrictive than translation of poetry, because in the former there is little or no freedom to choose between a versified translation and a translation that dispenses with verse structure. One might modify or omit rhyme in a singing translation, but the assignment of syllables to specific notes in the original musical setting places great challenges on the translator. There is the option in prose sung texts, less so in verse, of adding or deleting a syllable here and there by subdividing or combining notes, respectively, but even with prose the process is almost like strict verse translation because of the need to stick as closely as possible to the original prosody of the sung melodic line. Other considerations in writing a singing translation include repetition of words and phrases, the placement of rests and punctuation, the quality of vowels sung on high notes, and rhythmic features of the vocal line that may be more natural to the original language than to the target language. A sung translation may be considerably or completely different from the original, thus resulting in a [[contrafactum]]. Translations of sung texts—whether of the above type meant to be sung or of a more or less literal type meant to be read—are also used as aids to audiences, singers and conductors, when a work is being sung in a language not known to them. The most familiar types are translations presented as subtitles or [[surtitles]] projected during [[opera]] performances, those inserted into concert programs, and those that accompany commercial audio CDs of vocal music. In addition, professional and amateur singers often sing works in languages they do not know (or do not know well), and translations are then used to enable them to understand the meaning of the words they are singing. ===Religious texts=== {{Further|Bible translations|Quran translations}} [[File:Domenico Ghirlandaio - St Jerome in his study.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Jerome]], [[patron saint]] of translators and [[encyclopedia|encyclopedists]]]] An important role in history has been played by translation of religious texts. Such translations may be influenced by tension between the text and the religious values the translators wish to convey.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Tobler|first1=Stefan|last2=Sabău|first2=Antoaneta|date=1 April 2018|title=Translating Confession, Editorial RES 1/2018|url=https://content.sciendo.com/view/journals/ress/10/1/article-p5.xml|journal=Review of Ecumenical Studies Sibiu|volume=10|issue=1|pages=5–9|doi=10.2478/ress-2018-0001|s2cid=188019915|doi-access=free}}</ref> For example, [[Buddhist]] [[monk]]s who translated the [[India]]n [[sutra]]s into [[Chinese language|Chinese]] occasionally adjusted their translations to better reflect [[China]]'s distinct [[culture]], emphasizing notions such as [[filial piety]]. One of the first recorded instances of translation in the West was the 3rd century BCE rendering of some books of the biblical [[Old Testament]] from Hebrew into [[Koine Greek]]. The translation is known as the "[[Septuagint]]", a name that refers to the supposedly seventy translators (seventy-two, in some versions) who were commissioned to translate the Bible at [[Alexandria]], Egypt. According to legend, each translator worked in solitary confinement in his own cell, and all seventy versions proved identical. The ''Septuagint'' became the [[source text]] for later translations into many languages, including Latin, [[Coptic language|Coptic]], [[Armenian language|Armenian]], and [[Georgian language|Georgian]]. Still considered one of the greatest translators in history, for having rendered the Bible into Latin, is [[Jerome]] (347–420 CE), the [[patron saint]] of translators. For centuries the [[Roman Catholic Church]] used his translation (known as the [[Vulgate]]), though even this translation stirred controversy. By contrast with Jerome's contemporary, [[Augustine of Hippo]] (354–430 CE), who endorsed precise translation, Jerome believed in adaptation, and sometimes invention, in order to more effectively bring across the meaning. Jerome's colorful Vulgate translation of the Bible includes some crucial instances of "overdetermination". For example, [[Isaiah]]'s prophecy announcing that the Savior will be born of a virgin, uses the word '''almah'', which is also used to describe the dancing girls at [[Solomon]]'s court, and simply means young and nubile. Jerome, writes [[Marina Warner]], translates it as ''virgo'', "adding divine authority to the virulent cult of [[sex]]ual disgust that shaped Christian moral theology (the [Moslem] ''[[Quran]]'', free from this linguistic trap, does not connect [[Maryam (name)|Mariam]]/[[Mary, mother of Jesus|Mary]]'s miraculous nature with moral horror of sex)." The apple that [[Eve]] offered to [[Adam]], according to Mark Polizzotti, could equally well have been an [[apricot]], orange, or banana; but Jerome liked the [[pun]] ''malus/malum'' (apple/evil).<ref name="This Little Art 2018 p. 22"/> [[Pope Francis]] has suggested that the phrase "lead us not into temptation", in the [[Lord's Prayer]] found in the [[Gospel of Matthew|Gospels of Matthew]] (the first Gospel, written {{circa|80}}–90 CE) and [[Gospel of Luke|Luke]] (the third Gospel, written {{circa|80}}–110 CE), should more properly be translated, "do not let us fall into temptation", commenting that God does not lead people into temptation—[[Satan]] does.{{efn|MJC Warren, Lecturer in Biblical and Religious Studies, [[University of Sheffield]], points out (more explicitly than Charles McNamara) that Luke gives a shorter version of Jesus's Lord's Prayer, leaving off the request that God "deliver us from evil"; that (as Charles McNamara also says) accurate translation is not the question here; and that the Bible records a number of incidents when God commands evil actions, such as that [[Abraham]] kill his only son, [[Isaac]] (whose execution is canceled at the last moment).<ref>MJC Warren, "‘Lead us not into temptation’: why Pope Francis is wrong about the Lord’s Prayer", ''[[The Conversation (website)|The Conversation]]'', 8 December 2017 [https://theconversation.com/lead-us-not-into-temptation-why-pope-francis-is-wrong-about-the-lords-prayer-88886]</ref>}} Some important early Christian authors interpreted the Bible's Greek text and [[Jerome]]'s Latin Vulgate similarly to Pope Francis. A.J.B. Higgins<ref>A.J.B. Higgins, "'Lead Us Not into Temptation': Some Latin Variants", ''[[Journal of Theological Studies]]'', 1943.</ref> in 1943 showed that among the earliest Christian authors, the understanding and even the text of this devotional verse underwent considerable changes. These ancient writers suggest that, even if the Greek and Latin texts are left unmodified, something like "do not let us fall" could be an acceptable English rendering. Higgins cited [[Tertullian]], the earliest of the Latin [[Church Fathers]] ({{circa|155|240 CE}}, "do not allow us to be led") and [[Cyprian]] ({{circa|200}}–258 CE, "do not allow us to be led into temptation"). A later author, [[Ambrose]] ({{circa|340}}–397 CE), followed Cyprian's interpretation. Augustine of Hippo (354–430), familiar with Jerome's Latin Vulgate rendering, observed that "many people... say it this way: 'and do not allow us to be led into temptation.'"<ref>Charles McNamara, "Lead Us Not into Temptation? Francis Is Not the First to Question a Key Phrase of the Lord's Prayer", ''[[Commonweal (magazine)|Commonweal]]'', 1 January 2018. [https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/lead-us-not-temptation]</ref> In 863 CE the brothers [[Saints Cyril and Methodius]], the [[Byzantine Empire]]'s "Apostles to the Slavs", began translating parts of the Bible into the [[Old Church Slavonic]] language, using the [[Glagolitic script]] that they had devised, based on the [[Greek alphabet]]. The periods preceding and contemporary with the [[Protestant Reformation]] saw translations of the Bible into [[vernacular]] (local) European languages—a development that contributed to [[Western Christianity]]'s split into Roman Catholicism and [[Protestantism]] over disparities between Catholic and Protestant renderings of crucial words and passages (and due to a Protestant-perceived need to reform the Roman Catholic Church). Lasting effects on the religions, cultures, and languages of their respective countries were exerted by such Bible translations as [[Martin Luther]]'s into German (the [[New Testament]], 1522), [[Jakub Wujek]]'s into Polish (1599, as revised by the [[Jesuits]]), and [[Tyndale Bible|William Tyndale's version]] (New Testament, 1526 and revisions) and the [[King James Version]] into English (1611). [[File:Moses (Michaelangelo - San Pietro in Vincoli - Rome).jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.8|Mistranslation: [[Michelangelo]]'s [[Horns of Moses|horned Moses]]]] Efforts to translate the Bible into English had their [[martyr]]s. [[William Tyndale]] ({{circa|1494}}–1536) was convicted of [[heresy]] at [[Antwerp]], was strangled to death while tied at the stake, and then his dead body was burned.<ref>{{Citation |last=Farris |first=Michael |title=From Tyndale to Madison |year=2007 |page=37}}.</ref> Earlier, [[John Wycliffe]] ({{circa|mid-1320s}} – 1384) had managed to die a natural death, but 30 years later the [[Council of Constance]] in 1415 declared him a heretic and decreed that his works and earthly remains should be burned; the order, confirmed by [[Pope Martin V]], was carried out in 1428, and Wycliffe's corpse was exhumed and burned and the ashes cast into the [[River Swift]]. Debate and religious [[schism]] over different translations of religious texts continue, as demonstrated by, for example, the [[King James Only movement]]. A famous ''mistranslation'' of a [[Biblical]] text is the rendering of the Hebrew word {{lang|he|קֶרֶן|rtl=yes}} (''keren''), which has several meanings, as "[[Horns of Moses|horn]]" in a context where it more plausibly means "beam of light": as a result, for centuries artists, including sculptor [[Michelangelo]], have rendered [[Moses|Moses the Lawgiver]] with horns growing from his forehead. [[File:Chinese quran.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|[[Chinese language|Chinese]] translation, verses 33–34 of ''Quran'''s [[Ya Sin|''surah'' (chapter) 36]]]] Such fallibility of the translation process has contributed to the [[Islamic]] world's ambivalence about translating the ''[[Quran]]'' (also spelled ''Koran'') from the original Arabic, as received by the prophet [[Muhammad]] from [[Allah]] (God) through the angel [[Gabriel]] incrementally between 609 and 632 CE, the year of Muhammad's death. During prayers, the ''Quran'', as the miraculous and inimitable word of Allah, is recited only in Arabic. However, as of 1936, it had been translated into at least 102 languages.<ref name="fatani">{{cite encyclopedia |first =Afnan|last = Fatani|title =Translation and the Qur'an|editor-link =Oliver Leaman|editor-first = Oliver| editor-last = Leaman|encyclopedia=The Qur'an: An Encyclopaedia|publisher = Routledge|date = 2006|pages = 657–669|isbn = 978-0415775298}}</ref> A fundamental difficulty in translating the ''Quran'' accurately stems from the fact that an Arabic word, like a Hebrew or Aramaic word, may have a [[Polysemy|range of meanings]], depending on [[Context (language use)|context]]. This is said to be a linguistic feature, particularly of all [[Semitic languages]], that adds to the usual similar difficulties encountered in translating between any two languages.<ref name = fatani/> There is always an element of human judgment—of interpretation—involved in understanding and translating a text. Muslims regard any translation of the ''Quran'' as but one possible interpretation of the [[Classical Arabic|Quranic (Classical) Arabic]] text, and not as a full equivalent of that divinely communicated original. Hence such a translation is often called an "interpretation" rather than a translation.<ref>[[Malise Ruthven]], ''Islam in the World'', Granta, 2006, p. 90, {{ISBN|978-1-86207-906-9}}.</ref> To complicate matters further, as with other languages, the meanings and usages of some expressions have changed ''over time'', between the Classical Arabic of the ''Quran'', and modern Arabic. Thus a modern Arabic speaker may misinterpret the meaning of a word or passage in the ''Quran''. Moreover, the interpretation of a Quranic passage will also depend on the historic context of Muhammad's life and of his early community. Properly researching that context requires a detailed knowledge of ''[[hadith]]'' and ''[[Prophetic biography|sirah]]'', which are themselves vast and complex texts. Hence, analogously to the translating of [[#Chinese literature|Chinese literature]], an attempt at an accurate translation of the ''Quran'' requires a knowledge not only of the Arabic language and of the target language, including their respective evolutions, but also a deep understanding of the two [[culture]]s involved. === Experimental literature === Experimental literature, such as [[Kathy Acker]]’s novel ''Don Quixote'' (1986) and [[Giannina Braschi]]’s novel ''[[Yo-Yo Boing!]]'' (1998), features a translative writing that highlights discomforts of the interlingual and translingual encounters and literary translation as a creative practice.<ref name=fisher>{{Cite journal|last=Fisher|first=Abigail|title=These lips that are not (d)one: Writing with the 'pash' of translation|url=http://www.textjournal.com.au/oct20/fisher.pdf |journal=TEXT: Journal of Writing and Writing Courses |volume=24 |number=2 |date=October 2020 |pages=1–25 |quote=Braschi and Acker employ certain techniques to produce writing that eschews fixed meaning in favour of facilitating the emergence of fluid and interpermeating textual resonances, as well as to establish a meta-discourse on the writing and translation process.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Moreno Fernandez |first=Francisco |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1143649021 |title=Yo-Yo Boing! Or Literature as a Translingual Practice (Poets, Philosophers, Lovers: on the writings of Giannina Braschi)|publisher=U Pittsburgh |others=Aldama, Frederick Luis; Stavans, Ilan; O'Dwyer, Tess |year=2020 |isbn=978-0-8229-4618-2|location=Pittsburgh, Pa.|oclc=1143649021|quote=This epilinguistic awareness is apparent in the constant language games and in the way in which she so often plays with this translingual reality and with all the factors with which it contrasts and among which it moves so liquidly.}}</ref> These authors weave their own translations into their texts. Acker's [[Postmodern literature|Postmodern]] fiction both fragments and preserves the materiality of [[Catullus]]’s Latin text in ways that tease out its semantics and syntax without wholly appropriating them, a method that unsettles the notion of any fixed and finished translation.<ref name=fisher /> Whereas Braschi's trilogy of experimental works (''[[Empire of Dreams (poetry collection)|Empire of Dreams]]'', 1988; ''Yo-Yo Boing!'', 1998, and ''[[United States of Banana]]'', 2011) deals with the very subject of translation.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Stanchich|first=Maritza|title=Bilingual Big Bang: Giannina Braschi's Trilogy Levels the Spanish-English Playing Field (Poets, Philosophers, Lovers)|publisher=U Pittsburgh|location=Pittsburgh|pages=63–75|quote=Carrión notes, the idea of an only tongue ruling over a considerable number of different nations and peoples is fundamentally questioned.}}</ref> Her trilogy presents the evolution of the Spanish language through loose translations of dramatic, poetic, and philosophical writings from the Medieval, [[Spanish Golden Age|Golden Age]], and [[Modernismo|Modernist]] eras into contemporary Caribbean, Latin American, and Nuyorican Spanish expressions. Braschi's translations of classical texts in Iberian Spanish (into other regional and historical linguistic and poetic frameworks) challenge the concept of national languages.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Carrión|first=María M.|date=1 January 1996|title=Geography, (M)Other Tongues and the Role of Translation in Giannina Braschi's El imperio de los sueños|journal=Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature|volume=20|issue=1|doi=10.4148/2334-4415.1385|issn=2334-4415|doi-access=free}}</ref> ===Science fiction=== [[Science fiction]] being a [[genre]] with a recognizable set of conventions and literary genealogies, in which language often includes [[neologism]]s, neosemes,{{clarify|date=April 2019}} and [[invented languages]], techno-scientific and [[Pseudoscience|pseudoscientific]] vocabulary,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZVYxl5ued-oC|title=The Seven Beauties of Science Fiction|last=Csicsery-Ronay|first=Istvan Jr.|date=2008|publisher=Wesleyan University Press|isbn=9780819568892|pages=13–46}}</ref> and fictional representation of the translation process,<ref>{{Cite book|title=Transfiction: Research into the Realities of Translation Fiction|date=2014|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company|others=Kaindl, Klaus., Spitzel, Karlheinz.|isbn=9789027270733|location=Amsterdam|pages=345–362|oclc=868285393}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Mossop|first=Brian|date=1 April 1996|title=The Image of Translation in Science Fiction & Astronomy|journal=The Translator|volume=2|issue=1|pages=1–26|doi=10.1080/13556509.1996.10798961|issn=1355-6509}}</ref> the translation of science-fiction texts involves specific concerns.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Iannuzzi|first=Giulia|date=2 November 2018|title=Science fiction, cultural industrialization and the translation of techno-science in post-World War II Italy|journal=Perspectives|volume=26|issue=6|pages=885–900|doi=10.1080/0907676X.2018.1496461|issn=0907-676X|hdl=11368/2930475|s2cid=69992861|url=https://zenodo.org/record/2652301|hdl-access=free}}</ref> The science-fiction translator tends to acquire specific competences and assume a distinctive publishing and cultural agency.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Iannuzzi|first=Giulia|date=2017|title=Traduttore, consulente editoriale, intellettuale: Riccardo Valla e la fantascienza angloamericana in Italia|journal=Rivista Internazionale di Tecnica della Traduzione: International Journal of Translation|doi=10.13137/2421-6763/17363 |url=https://www.openstarts.units.it/handle/10077/17363|language=it|issn=1722-5906}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Un laboratorio di fantastici libri. Riccardo Valla intellettuale, editore, traduttore. Con un'appendice di lettere inedite a cura di Luca G. Manenti|last=Iannuzzi|first=Giulia|year=2019|isbn=9788833051031|location=Chieti (Italy)}}</ref> As in the case of other mass-fiction genres, this professional specialization and role often is not recognized by publishers and scholars.<ref>{{Citation|last=Milton|first=John|chapter=The Translation of Mass Fiction|date=2000|chapter-url=https://benjamins.com/catalog/btl.32.21mil|volume=32|pages=171–179|editor-last=Beeby|editor-first=Allison|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company|doi=10.1075/btl.32.21mil|isbn=9789027216373|access-date=6 April 2019|editor2-last=Ensinger|editor2-first=Doris|editor3-last=Presas|editor3-first=Marisa|title=Investigating Translation|series=Benjamins Translation Library}}</ref> Translation of science fiction accounts for the transnational nature of science fiction's repertoire of shared conventions and [[Trope (literature)|tropes]]. After [[World War II]], many European countries were swept by a wave of translations from the English.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Gouanvic|first=Jean-Marc|date=1 November 1997|title=Translation and the Shape of Things to Come|journal=The Translator|volume=3|issue=2|pages=125–152|doi=10.1080/13556509.1997.10798995|issn=1355-6509}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OFB9kQEACAAJ|title=The Cultural Transfer of Science Fiction and Fantasy in Hungary 1989-1995|last=Sohár|first=Anikó|date=1999|publisher=Peter Lang|isbn=9780820443485}}</ref> Due to the prominence of English as a source language, the use of [[pseudonym]]s and [[pseudotranslation]]s became common in countries such as Italy<ref name=":0" /> and Hungary,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sohár|first=Anikó|date=August 2000|title=The speech bewrayeth thee: thou shalt not steal the prestige of foregin literatures Pseudotranslations in Hungary after 1989|journal=Hungarian Studies|volume=14|issue=1|pages=56–82|doi=10.1556/HStud.14.2000.1.3|issn=0236-6568|url=http://real.mtak.hu/56813/1/hstud.14.2000.1.3.pdf}}</ref> and English has often been used as a [[vehicular language]] to translate from languages such as Chinese and Japanese.<ref name="Iannuzzi">{{Cite journal|last=Iannuzzi|first=Giulia|title=The Translation of East Asian Science Fiction in Italy: An Essay on Chinese and Japanese Science Fiction, Anthological Practices and Publishing Strategies beyond the Anglo-American Canon|journal=Quaderni di Cultura|doi=10.5281/zenodo.3604992|year=2015|volume=12|pages=85–108}}</ref> More recently, the international market in science-fiction translations has seen an increasing presence of source languages other than English.<ref name="Iannuzzi"/> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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