History and Theory of Translation�TP1

Lecturer: Zsófia Gombár

Date: 24 October 2023

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John Dryden (1631-1700)

John Dryden (1631-1700)

• Metaphrase =

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• Paraphrase =

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• Free imitation =

John Dryden (1631-1700)

• Metaphrase = literal translation = word for word translation

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• Paraphrase =

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• Free imitation =

John Dryden (1631-1700)

• Metaphrase = literal translation = word for word translation

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• Paraphrase = faithful translation = sense-for-sense translation

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• Free imitation =

John Dryden (1631-1700)

• Metaphrase = literal translation = word for word translation

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• Paraphrase = faithful translation = sense-for-sense translation

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• Free imitation = very free translation = or it is more or less what today might be understood as ‘adaptation’

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Cicero (106-43 BC) and (St Jerome (c. 342-347 – 400 AD)

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC)

• Roman statesman
• considered the founder of Western Translation Theory
• the first to comment on the process of translation and to offer advice
• De Optimo Genere Oratorum, [On the Best Kind of Orators] (64 BC): introducing his own translation of the speeches of the Athenian orators Aeschines and Demosthenes.

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De Optimo Genere Oratorum

• That is to say I translated the most famous orations of the two most eloquent Attic orators, Aeschines and Demosthenes, orations which they delivered against each other. And I did not translate them as an interpreter, but as an orator, keeping the same ideas and forms, or as one might say, the ‘figures’ of thought, but in language which conforms to our usage. And in so doing, I did not hold it necessary to render word for word, but I preserved the general style and force of the language.

Horace: Quintus Horatius Flaccus (65-27 BC)

• Ars Poetica (20 BCE?):

A theme that is familiar can be made your own property so long as you do not waste your time on a hackneyed treatment; nor should you try to render your original word for word like a slavish translator, or in imitating another writer plunge yourself into difficulties from which shame, or the rules you have laid down for yourself, prevent you from extricating yourself.

Ancient Rome

• sense-for-sense translation was preferred over word-for-word translation

Christianity

• Bible translators were instructed by the Church to avoid sense-for-sense method

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• Fear of open interpretation of the sacred texts

St Jerome, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus (c. 342–419/420)

• Vulgate, a Latin translation of the Bible ordered by Pope Damasus in 382 to revise the Vetus Latina Gospels used by the Roman Church.
• His non-biblical translations and texts follow classical rhetorical rules

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• His biblical style evokes the early Christian literal style

St Jerome as translator of the Bible

• the first to use truth (veritas) as a critical concept
• his first concern being accuracy of the source text
• revised and corrected earlier Latin translations of the Greek New Testament
• For the Old Testament, he returned to the original Hebrew (Martin Luther)

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De optimo genere interpretandi

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• a letter addressed to his friend, the senator Pammachius, in 395
• justifying his translation of a letter from Pope Epiphenius to John, the Bishop of Jerusalem
• defends himself against accusations of ‘incorrect’ translation

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Now I not only admit but freely announce that in translating from the Greek– except of course in the case of the Holy Scripture, where even the syntax contains a mystery – I render not word-for-word, but sense-for-sense.

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(St Jerome 395 AC, Robinson, 1997: 25)

References

• Baker, Mona; Kirsten Malmkjær, and Gabriela Saldanha. Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, London: Routledge, 2011.
• Bassnett, Susan. Translation Studies. London and New York: Routledge, 2014
• Deslisle, J. and J. Woodsworth (eds). Translators through History. Revised edition. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2012.
• Munday, Jeremy. The Routledge Companion to Translation Studies. London: Routledge, 2009.
• Robinson, Douglas. Western Translation Theory from Herodotus to Nietzsche. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing, 1997.
• Weissbort, D. and A. Eysteinsson (eds) Translation – Theory and Practice: A Historical Reader. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.

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