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300 BCE
“Septuagint”
The dispersed Jews had forgotten Hebrew, their ancestral language, and needed the Bible to be translated into Greek to be able to read it.
Each translator worked in solitary confinement in his own cell, and
according to legend all seventy versions proved identical. -
200 BCE
Terence
Roman playwright who adapted Greek comedies into Roman in the 2nd century BCE. -
199 BCE
Sense‑for‑Sense Translation vs. Word‑for‑Word Translation
Jerome stated that the translator needed
to translate “not word for word but sense for sense” -
55 BCE
Cicero
Cicero was also a translator from Greek to Latin, and compared the translator’s work to that of an artist.
Famously cautioned against translating “word for
word” -
390
“Diamond Sutra”
“Diamond Sutra” an influential Mahayana sutra in East Asia written by Kumārajīva, a Buddhist monk, scholar and translator is known for the prolific translation into Chinese of Buddhist texts written in Sanskrit -
850
King of Wessex in England
“Ecclesiastical History” and “The Consolation of Philosophy” which contributed to improve the underdeveloped English prose of that time. -
1200
Toledo School of Translators
Translate major philosophical, religious, scientific and
medical works from Arabic, Greek and Hebrew into Latin and Castilian. -
1300
Roger Bacon
Was the first linguist to assess that a translator should have
a thorough knowledge of both the source language and the target language to produce a good translation, -
1400
Geoffrey Chaucer
The first fine translations into English were produced by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century. Chaucer translated the “Roman de la Rose” from French, and Boethius’s works from Latin. He -
1400
Latin and Italian, were more “established” than English at the time.
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1500
Platonic Academy
Pletho met Cosimo and influenced him to found a Platonic Academy. Platonic Academy took over the translation into Latin of all Plato’s works -
1522
Martin Luther
German professor of theology, was a seminal figure in the Protestant Reformation, and translated the Bible into German in his later life. He was the first European to assess that one translates
satisfactorily only toward his own language.
The publication of the “Luther Bible” also contributed significantly to the development of the modern German language. -
1522
The Bible
1522 to 1569
The Bible in Dutch was published in 1526 by Jacob van Lisevelt.
The Bible in French was published in1528 by Jacobus Faber.
The Bible in Spanish was published in 1569 by Casiodoro de Reina.
The Bible in Slovene was published in 1584 by Jurij Dalmatn. -
1525
Tyndale New Testament
Is considered the first great Tudor translation. After translating the whole New Testament, Tyndale went on with the Old Testament and translated half of it. Tyndale also became a leading figure
in Protestant Reformation before receiving a death sentence for an unlicensed possession of Scripture in
English. The “Tyndale Bible” was completed by one of Tyndale’s assistants. -
English poets and translators
They wanted to supply a new audience – created by the rise of a middle class and the development of printing -
Cervantes
Expressed his own opinion on the translation process by offering a rather despairing metaphor for the end result of translations.
According to Cervantes, translations of his time – with the exception of those made from Greek into Latin – were like looking at a Flemish tapestry by its reverse side. -
“Faithfulness” and “Transparency”
Dual ideals in translation -
The watchword of translators was EASY 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. -
Johann Gottfried Herder
German philosopher, theologian, poet and translator, a
translator should translate toward (and not from) his own language -
Essay on the Principles of Translation
Alexander Tytler emphasized that assiduous reading is a more comprehensive guide to a language than are dictionaries. -
Yan Fu
Developed his three‑facet theory of translation:
1st Faithfulness, be true to the original in spirit; expressiveness.
2nd Be accessible to the target reader; and elegance.(the most important)
3th Be in the language the target reader accepts as being educated. -
Aniela Zagórska
Polish translator, “Don’t trouble to be too scrupulous… I may tell you that in my opinion it is better to interpret than to translate… It is, then, a question of finding the equivalent expressions." -
Jorge Luis Borges
Was also a notable translator of literary works from English, French, German, Old English or Old Norse into Spanish. Said that a translation may improve upon the original, may even be unfaithful to it, and that alternative and potentially contradictory renderings of the same work can be equally valid. -
James S. Holmes
Birth of a new discipline called “Translation Studies” as well
as the creation of new institutes specializing in teaching it. -
Now an Academic Interdiscipline
includes many fields of study (comparative literature, computer science, history, linguistics, philology, philosophy, semiotics, terminology), with the need for translators to choose a specialty (legal, economic, technical, scientific or literary translation) in
order to be trained accordingly. -
Translation software
Precarious employment for some translators, sarce freelance work -
It is not enough
They need more skills than two languages to become good translators.
