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How to translate Chinese address into English
H​o​w​ ​t​o​ ​t​r​a​n​s​l​a​t​e​ ​C​h​i​n​e​s​e​ ​a​d​d​r​e​s​s​ ​i​n​t​o​ ​E​n​g​l​i​s​h
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你可能喜欢From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article needs additional citations for . Please help
by . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2013)
For other uses, see .
"Translator" redirects here. For other uses, see .
For article translations in Wikipedia, see .
Translation is the communication of the
of a source-language text by means of an
target-language text. Whereas
undoubtedly antedates , translation began only after the ap there exist partial translations of the Sumerian
(ca. 2000 BCE) into
languages of the second millennium BCE.
Translators always risk inappropriate
of source-language
into the target-language translation. On the other hand, spill-overs have imported useful source-language
that have enriched the target languages. Indeed, translators have helped substantially to shape the languages into which they have translated.
Due to the demands of
documentation consequent to the
that began in the mid-18th century, some translation specialties have become formalized, with dedicated schools and professional associations.
Because of the laboriousness of translation, since the 1940s engineers have sought to automate translation () or to mechanically aid the human translator (). The rise of the
has fostered a world-wide market for translation services and has facilitated .
deal with the systematic study of the theory, the description and the application of translation.
The word translation derives from the Latin translatio (which itself comes from
form of which is latum, together meaning "to carry across" or "to bring across"). The modern
use words for translation derived from that source or from the alternative Latin traduco ("to lead across"). The
languages (except for the
"vertaling", "literally" a "re-language-ing") likewise use .
term for translation, μετ?φρασι? (metaphrasis, "a speaking across"), has supplied
(a "," or "word-for-word," translation) — as contrasted with
("a saying in other words", from παρ?φρασι?, paraphrasis). Metaphrase corresponds, in one of the more recent terminologies, to ""; and paraphrase, to "."
Strictly speaking, the concept of metaphrase — of "word-for-word translation" — is an
concept, because a given word in a given language often carries m and because a similar given meaning may often be represented in a given language by more than one word. Nevertheless, "metaphrase" and "paraphrase" may be useful as ideal concepts that mark the extremes in the spectrum of possible approaches to translation.
for the art of translation is the . This trilingual (, , )
became the translator's key to
and others.
In the United States of America, the Rosetta Stone is incorporated into the
Discussions of the theory and practice of translation reach back into
and show remarkable continuities. The
distinguished between
() and . This distinction was adopted by English
(), who described translation as the judicious blending of these two modes of phrasing when selecting, in the target language, "counterparts," or , for the expressions used in the source language:
When [words] appear... literally graceful, it were an injury to the author that they should be changed. But since... what is beautiful in one [language] is often barbarous, nay sometimes nonsense, in another, it would be unreasonable to limit a translator to the narrow compass of his author's words: ’tis enough if he choose out some expression which does not vitiate the sense.
Dryden cautioned, however, against the license of "imitation", i.e., of adapted translation: “When a painter copies from the life... he has no privilege to alter features and lineaments..."
This general formulation of the central concept of translation —
— is as adequate as any that has been proposed since
and , who, in 1st-century-BCE , famously and literally cautioned against translating "word for word" (verbum pro verbo).
Despite occasional theoretical diversity, the actual practice of translation has hardly changed since . Except for some extreme
in the early
period and the , and adapters in various periods (especially pre-Classical Rome, and the 18th century), translators have generally shown prudent flexibility in seeking
— "" where possible,
where necessary — for the original
and other crucial "values" (e.g., , , concordance with
accompaniment or, in , with speech
movements) as determined from context.
In general, translators have sought to preserve the
itself by reproducing the original order of , and hence
— when necessary, reinterpreting the actual
structure, for example, by shifting from
to , or vice versa. The grammatical differences between "fixed-word-order"
(e.g. , , ) and "free-word-order" languages (e.g., , , , ) have been no impediment in this regard. The particular
(sentence-structure) characteristics of a text's source language are adjusted to the syntactic requirements of the target language.
When a target language has lacked
that are found in a source language, translators have borrowed those terms, thereby enriching the target language. Thanks in great measure to the exchange of
between languages, and to their importation from other languages, there are few
that are "" among the modern European languages.
Generally, the greater the contact and exchange that have existed between two languages, or between those languages and a third one, the greater is the ratio of
that may be used in translating among them. However, due to shifts in
of words, a common
is sometimes misleading as a guide to current meaning in one or the other language. For example, the English actual should not be confused with the
French actuel ("present", "current"), the Polish aktualny ("present", "current," "topical," "timely," "feasible"), the Swedish aktuell ("topical", "presently of importance"), the Russian актуальный ("urgent", "topical") or the Dutch actueel.
The translator's role as a bridge for "carrying across" values between cultures has been discussed at least since , the 2nd-century-BCE Roman adapter of Greek comedies. The translator's role is, however, by no means a passive, mechanical one, and so has also been compared to that of an . The main ground seems to be the concept of parallel creation found in critics such as .
observed that "Translation is a type of drawing after life..." Comparison of the translator with a
goes back at least to ’s remark about
on a , while Homer himself used a .
If translation be an art, it is no easy one. In the 13th century,
wrote that if a translation is to be true, the translator must know both , as well as the
tha and finding that few translators did, he wanted to do away with translation and translators altogether.
The translator of the Bible into German, , is credited with being the first European to posit that one translates satisfactorily only toward his own language. L.G. Kelly states that since
in the 18th century, "it has been axiomatic" that one translates only toward his own language.
Compounding the demands on the translator is the fact that no
can ever be a fully adequate guide in translating. The British historian , in his Essay on the Principles of Translation (1790), emphasized that assiduous
is a more comprehensive guide to a language than are dictionaries. The same point, but also including
to the , had earlier, in 1783, been made by the Polish poet and
The translator’s special role in society is described in a posthumous 1803 essay by "Poland's ", the Roman Catholic , , ,
of the first Polish novel, and translator from French and Greek, :
[T]ranslation... is in fact an art both estimable and very difficult, and therefore is not the labor and por [it] should be [practiced] by those who are themselves capable of being actors, when they see greater use in translating the works of others than in their own works, and hold higher than their own glory the service that they render their country.
Due to Western colonialism and cultural dominance in recent centuries, Western translation traditions have largely replaced other traditions. The Western traditions draw on both ancient and medieval traditions, and on more recent European innovations.
Though earlier approaches to translation are less commonly used today, they retain importance when dealing with their products, as when historians view ancient or medieval records to piece together events which took place in non-Western or pre-Western environments. Also, though heavily influenced by Western traditions and practiced by translators taught in Western-style educational systems, Chinese and related translation traditions retain some theories and philosophies unique to the Chinese tradition.
This section requires . (March 2012)
The traditions of translating material among Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Syriac, Anatolian and Hebrew go back several millennia. An early example of a bilingual document is the 1274 BCE .
, translated by
Further information:
This section requires . (June 2010)
There is a separate tradition of translation in South, Southeast and East Asia (primarily of texts from the Indian and Chinese civilizations), especially connected with the rendering of religious — particularly Buddhist — texts and with the governance of the Chinese empire.
is characterized by loose adaptation, rather than the closer translation more commonly found in Europe, and
identifies various criteria and limitations in translation.
In the East Asian sphere of Chinese cultural influence, more important than translation per se has been the use and reading of Chinese texts, which also had substantial influence on the Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese languages, with substantial
and writing system. Notable is the Japanese , a system for
Chinese texts for Japanese speakers.
Though Indianized states in
often translated
material into the local languages, the literate elites and scribes more commonly used Sanskrit as their primary language of culture and government.
This section requires . (March 2012)
Translation of material into
expanded after the creation of
in the 5th century, and gained great importance with the rise of
and Islamic empires. Arab translation initially focused primarily on politics, rendering Persian, Greek, even Chinese and Indic diplomatic materials into Arabic. It later focused on translating classical Greek and Persian works, as well as some Chinese and Indian texts, into Arabic for scholarly study at major Islamic learning centers, such as the ,
and . In terms of theory, Arabic translation drew heavily on earlier Near Eastern traditions as well as more contemporary Greek and Persian traditions.
Arabic translation efforts and techniques are important to Western translation traditions due to centuries of close contacts and exchanges. Especially after the , Europeans began more intensive study of Arabic and Persian translations of classical works as well as scientific and philosophical works of Arab and oriental origins. Arabic and, to a lesser degree, Persian became important sources of material and perhaps of techniques for revitalized Western traditions, which in time would overtake the Islamic and oriental traditions.
(or faithfulness) and , dual ideals in translation, are often at odds. A 17th-century French critic coined the phrase "les belles infidèles" to suggest that translations, like women, can be either faithful or beautiful, but not both.
Faithfulness is the extent to which a translation accurately renders the meaning of the , without distortion.
is the extent to which a translation appears to a native speaker of the target language to have originally been written in that language, and conforms to its grammar, syntax and idiom.
A translation that meets the first criterion is said to be "faithful"; a translation that meets the second, "". The two qualities are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
The criteria for judging the
of a translation vary according to the subject, type and use of the text, its literary qualities, its social or historical context, etc.
The criteria for judging the
of a translation appear more straightforward: an unidiomatic translation "sounds wrong"; and, in the extreme case of
generated by many
systems, often results in patent nonsense.
Nevertheless, in certain contexts a translator may consciously seek to produce a . Translators of ,
texts often adhere as closely as possible to the source text, stretching the limits of the target language to produce an unidiomatic text. A translator may adopt expressions from the source language in order to provide "local color".
In recent decades, prominent advocates of such "non-transparent" translation have included the French scholar , who identified twelve deforming tendencies inherent in most prose translations, and the American theorist , who has called on translators to apply "foreignizing" rather than domesticating translation strategies. Berman further insists on the need for a
to perform
afterwards.[]
Many non-transparent-translation theories draw on concepts from , the most obvious influence being the German theologian and philosopher . In his seminal lecture "On the Different Methods of Translation" (1813) he distinguished between translation methods that move "the writer toward [the reader]", i.e., , and those that move the "reader toward [the author]", i.e., an extreme
to the foreignness of the . Schleiermacher favored he was motivated, however, not so much by a desire to embrace the foreign, as by a nationalist desire to oppose France's cultural domination and to promote .
Current Western translation practice is dominated by the dual concepts of "fidelity" and "transparency". This has not always been the case, there have been periods, especially in pre-Classical Rome and in the 18th century, when many translators stepped beyond the bounds of translation proper into the realm of .
retains currency in some non-Western traditions. The
epic, the , appears in many versions in the various , and the stories are different in each. Similar examples are to be found in
literature, which adjusted the text to local customs and mores.
Main article:
The question of
has also been formulated in terms of, respectively, "formal equivalence" and "dynamic [or functional] equivalence". The latter expressions are associated with the translator
and were originally coined to describe ways of translating the , but the two approaches are applicable to any translation.
"Formal equivalence" corresponds to "", and "dynamic equivalence" to "".
"Dynamic equivalence" (or "functional equivalence") conveys the essential thoughts expressed in a source text — if necessary, at the expense of , original
and , the source text's active vs. passive , etc.
By contrast, "formal equivalence" (sought via ) attempts to render the text literally, or "word for word" (the latter expression being itself a word-for-word rendering of the
verbum pro verbo) — if necessary, at the expense of features natural to the target language.
There is, however, no sharp boundary between functional and formal equivalence. On the contrary, they represent a spectrum of translation approaches. Each is used at various times and in various contexts by the same translator, and at various points within the same text — sometimes simultaneously. Competent translation entails the judicious blending of functional and formal .
Common pitfalls in translation, especially when practiced by inexperienced translators, involve false equivalents such as "" and .
A "back-translation" is a translation of a translated text back into the language of the original text, made without reference to the original text.
Comparison of a back-translation with the original text is sometimes used as a check on the accuracy of the original translation, much as the accuracy of a mathematical operation is sometimes checked by reversing the operation. But the results of such reverse-translation operations, while useful as approximate checks, are not always precisely reliable. Back-translation must in general be less accurate than back-calculation because
symbols () are often , whereas mathematical symbols are intentionally unequivocal.
In the context of , a back-translation is also called a "round-trip translation."
When translations are produced of material used in medical , such as , a back-translation is often required by the
, back-translator
provided humorously telling evidence for the frequent unreliability of back-translation when he issued his own back-translation of a French translation of his , “". He published his back-translation in a 1903 volume together with his English-language original, the French translation, and a "Private History of the 'Jumping Frog' Story". The latter included a synopsized adaptation of his story that Twain stated had appeared, unattributed to Twain, in a Professor Sidgwick’s Greek Prose Composition (p. 116) under the title, “The Athenian and the Frog”; the adaptation had for a time been taken for an independent
precursor to Twain's "Jumping Frog" story.
When a historic document survives only in translation, the original having been lost, researchers sometimes undertake back-translation in an effort to reconstruct the original text. An example involves the novel
by the Polish aristocrat
(), who wrote the novel in French and anonymously published fragments in 1804 and 1813–14. Portions of the original French-language manuscript we however, the missing fragments survived in a Polish translation that was made by
in 1847 from a complete French copy, now lost. French-language versions of the complete Saragossa Manuscript have since been produced, based on extant French-language fragments and on French-language versions that have been back-translated from Chojecki’s Polish version.
Similarly, when historians suspect that a document is actually a translation from another language, back-translation into that hypothetical original language can provide supporting evidence by showing that such characteristics as , , peculiar
structures, etc., are in fact derived from the original language.
For example, the known text of the
folk tales is in
but contains puns that work only when back-translated to . This seems clear evidence that these tales (or at least large portions of them) were originally written in Low German and translated into High German by an over-metaphrastic translator.
Similarly, supporters of —of the view that the
or its sources were originally written in the —seek to prove their case by showing that difficult passages in the existing
text of the New Testament make much better sense when back-translated to : that, for example, some incomprehensible references are in fact Aramaic puns that do not work in Greek.
Due to similar indications, it is believed that the 2nd century Gnostic , which survives only in , was originally written in .
Competent translators show the following attributes:
a very good knowledge of the language, written and spoken, from which they are translating (the source language);
an excellent command of the language into which they are translating (the target language);
familiarity with the subject matter of the t
a profound understanding of the
correlates betwe and
a finely tuned sense of when to
(") and when to , so as to assure true rather than spurious
between the source- and target-language texts.
A competent translator is not only
is not merely a collection of
and of rules of
for generating , but also a vast interconnecting system of
references whose mastery, writes
, "comes close to being a lifetime job."
The complexity of the translator's task
one author suggests that becoming an accomplished translator—after having already acquired a good basic knowledge of both languages and cultures—may require a minimum of ten years' experience. Viewed in this light, it is a serious misconception to assume that a person who has fair fluency in two languages will, by virtue of that fact alone, be consistently competent to translate between them.
The translator's role in relation to a text has been compared to that of an artist, e.g., a musician or actor, who interprets a work of art. Translation, like other arts, inescapably involves choice, and choice implies interpretation. The English-language novelist , whose writings
has described as verging on "auto-translation" from Conrad's Polish and French linguistic personae, advised his niece and
translator Aniela Zagórska:
[D]on't trouble to be too scrupulous... I may tell you (in French) that in my opinion "il vaut mieux interpréter que traduire" ["it is better to interpret than to translate"].... Il s'agit donc de trouver les équivalents. Et là, ma chère, je vous prie laissez vous guider plut?t par votre tempérament que par une conscience sévère.... [It is, then, a question of finding the equivalent expressions. And there, my dear, I beg you to let yourself be guided more by your temperament than by a strict conscience....]
A translator may render only parts of the original text, provided he indicates that this is what he is doing. But a translator should not assume the role of
and surreptitiously delete or
passages merely to please a political or moral interest.
Translation has served as a school of writing for many authors. Translators, including monks who spread
texts in , and the early modern European translators of the , in the course of their work have shaped the very
into which they have translated. They have acted as bridges for conveyin and along with ideas, they have imported from the source languages, into their own languages,
(seated) and
(beside him) at
interpreter, : 150th-anniversary
Main article:
, or "interpretation," is the facilitation of
, either simultaneously or consecutively, between two, or among more, speakers who are not speaking, or signing, the same language.
The term "interpreting," rather than "interpretation," is preferentially used for this activity by
translators, to avoid confusion with other meanings of the word "."
Unlike English, many languages do not employ two separate words to denote the activities of
and live-communication ( or ) translators. Even English does not always make the distinction, frequently using "translation" as a synonym for "interpreting."
Interpreters have sometimes played crucial roles in . A prime example is , also known as Malintzin, Malinalli and Do?a Marina, an early-16th-century
woman from the Mexican . As a child she had been sold or given to
slave-traders from Xicalango, and thus had become bilingual. Subsequently given along with other women to the invading Spaniards, she became instrumental in the
conquest of , acting as interpreter, adviser, intermediary and lover to .
Nearly three centuries later, in the , a comparable role as interpreter was played for the
of 1804–6 by . As a child, the
woman had been kidnapped by
Indians and thus had become bilingual. Sacagawea facilitated the expedition's traverse of the
to the . Four decades later, in 1846, the Pacific would become the western border of the United States.
, also called "certified translation," aims at legal equivalence between two documents written in different languages. It is performed by someone authorized to do so by local regulations. Some countries recognize declared competence. Others require the translator to be an official state appointee.
Many commercial services exist that will interpret spoken language via telephone. There is also at least one custom-built mobile device that does the same thing. The device connects users to human interpreters who can translate between English and 180 other languages.
Web-based human translation is generally favored by companies and individuals that wish to secure more accurate translations. In view of the frequent inaccuracy of machine translations, human translation remains the most reliable, most accurate form of translation available. With the recent emergence of translation ,
techniques, and
applications, translation agencies have been able to provide on-demand human-translation services to , individuals, and enterprises.
While not instantaneous like its machine counterparts such as
and , web-based human translation has been gaining popularity by providing relatively fast, accurate translation for business communications, legal documents, medical records, and . Web-based human translation also appeals to private website users and bloggers.
Main article:
Computer-assisted translation (CAT), also called "computer-aided translation," "machine-aided human translation" (MAHT) and "interactive translation," is a form of translation wherein a human translator creates a target text with the assistance of a computer program. The machine supports a human translator.
Computer-assisted translation can include standard
and grammar software. The term, however, normally refers to a range of specialized programs available to the translator, including , , , and alignment programs.
These tools speed up and facilitate human translation, but they do not provide translation. That is a function of tools known broadly as machine translation.
Main article:
Machine translation (MT) is a process whereby a computer program analyzes a
and, in principle, produces a target text without human intervention. In reality, however, machine translation typically does involve human intervention, in the form of pre-editing and .
With proper , with preparation of the
for machine translation (pre-editing), and with reworking of the machine translation by a human translator (post-editing), commercial machine-translation tools can produce useful results, especially if the machine-translation system is integrated with a
Unedited machine translation is publicly available through tools on the
such as , , , and . These produce rough translations that, under favorable circumstances, "give the gist" of the source text.
With the Internet, translation software can help non-native-speaking individuals understand web pages published in other languages. Whole-page-translation tools are of limited utility, however, since they offer only a limited potential understanding of the original author' translated pages tend to be more humorous and confusing than enlightening.
Interactive translations with
are becoming more popular. These tools show one or more possible equivalents for each word or phrase. Human operators merely need to select the likeliest equivalent as the mouse glides over the foreign-language text. Possible equivalents can be grouped by pronunciation.
Also, companies such as
produce pocket devices that provide machine translations.
Relying exclusively on unedited machine translation, however, ignores the fact that communication in
is -embedded and that it takes a person to comprehend the context of the original text with a reasonable degree of probability. It is certainly true that even purely human-generated translation therefore, to ensure that a machine-generated translation will be useful to a human being and that publishable-quality translation is achieved, such translations must be reviewed and edited by a human.
writes that machine translation, at its best, automates the easier part of a translator' the harder and more time-consuming part usually involves doing extensive research to resolve
in the , which the
exigencies of the target language require to be resolved. Such research is a necessary prelude to the pre-editing necessary in order to provide input for machine-translation software, such that the output will not be .
Translation of
(, , , , etc.) is considered a literary pursuit in its own right. For example, notable in
specifically as translators are figures such as ,
and , and the
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 , , , ,
The first important translation in the West was that of the , a collection of
Scriptures translated into early
between the 3rd and 1st centuries BCE. The dispersed
had forgotten their ancestral language and needed Greek versions (translations) of their Scriptures.
Throughout the ,
of the western learned world. The 9th-century , king of
in , was far ahead of his time in commissioning
translations of 's
and ' . Meanwhile the
frowned on even partial adaptations of 's
of ca. 384 CE, the standard
In , the spread of
led to large-scale ongoing translation efforts spanning well over a thousand years. The
was especially effic exploiting the then newly invented , 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
centuries to render.[]
undertook large-scale efforts at translation. Having conquered the Greek world, they made
versions of its philosophical and scientific works. During the , translations of some of these Arabic versions were made into Latin, chiefly at
in . King Alfonso X el Sabio (Alphonse the Wise) of Castille in the 13th century promoted this effort by founding a Schola Traductorum (School of Translation) in . 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 , and thus European science and culture.
The broad historic trends in Western translation practice may be illustrated on the example of translation into the .
The first fine translations into English were made in the 14th century by , who adapted from the
in his own
and ; began a translation of the
; and completed a translation of
from the . Chaucer founded an English
tradition on
and translations from those earlier-established .
The first great English translation was the
(ca. 1382), which showed the weaknesses of an underdeveloped English . Only at the end of the 15th century did the great age of English prose translation begin with 's —an adaptation of
so free that it can, in fact, hardly be called a true translation. The first great
translations are, accordingly, the
(1525), which influenced the
(1611), and ' version of 's Chronicles (1523–25).
Meanwhile, in
, a new period in the history of translation had opened in
with the arrival, at the court of , of the
shortly before the fall of
to the Turks (1453). A Latin translation of 's works was undertaken by . This and ' Latin edition of the
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 ,
Non-scholarly literature, however, continued to rely on adaptation. 's , 's
poets, and the
translators adapted themes by , ,
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
and the development of , with works such as the original authors would have written, had they been writing in England in that day.
period of translation saw considerable progress beyond mere
toward an ideal of
equivalence, but even to the end of this period, which actually reached to the middle of the 17th century, there was no concern for
In the second half of the 17th century, the poet
sought to make
speak "in words such as he would probably have written if he were living and an Englishman". Dryden, however, discerned no need to emulate the Roman poet's subtlety and concision. Similarly,
suffered from 's endeavor to reduce the Greek poet's "wild paradise" to order.
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 's "translations" of —from texts that were actually of the "translator's" own composition.
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
passages and the addition of copious explanatory . In regard to style, the ' aim, achieved through far-reaching
(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, 's
(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.
In advance of the 20th century, a new pattern was set in 1871 by , who translated
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.
As languages change, texts in an earlier version of a language – either original texts or old translations – may be difficult for more modern readers to understand. Texts may thus be translated into more modern language, called a modern translation (sometimes modern English translation or modernized translation).
This is particularly done either for literature from classical languages (such as
or ), most prominently the Bible (see ), or for literature from an earlier stage of the same language, such as the works of
(which is largely understandable to a modern audience, but presents some difficulties), or
(which is not generally understandable to modern readers). Modern translation is applicable to any language with a l for example in Japanese,
(11th century) is generally read in modern translation – see .
Modern translation often involves literary scholarship and textual revisions, as there is frequently not a single canonical text. This is particularly noteworthy in the case of the Bible and Shakespeare, where modern scholarship can result in significant changes to the text.
Modern translation meets with opposition from
in English this is most significant in some people preferring the
of the Bible to modern translations, and to reading Shakespeare in the original (c. 1600) text, rather than in modern translation.
An opposite process is found in translating modern literature into classical language, particularly for the goal of
for examples.
presents special challenges to translators, given the importance of a text's formal aspects, in addition to its content. In his influential 1959 paper "", the -born
went so far as to declare that "poetry by definition [is] untranslatable".
was equally pessimistic: "Poetry is that which is lost in translations."
In 1974 the American poet
wrote a poem, "", which in part explores this idea. The question was also discussed in 's 1997 book, ; he argues that a good translation of a poem must convey as much as possible of not only its literal meaning but also its form and structure (meter, rhyme or alliteration scheme, etc.).
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 , at least in the Western tradition, is set to , especially verse in regular patterns with . (Since the late 19th century, musical setting of
has also been practiced in some , though
tends to remain conservative in its retention of
forms with or without .) A rudimentary example of translating poetry for singing is church , such as the German
translated into English by .
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/or 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 .
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
projected during
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.
Further information:
of translators and
Mistranslation: horned , by
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. For example,
who translated the
occasionally adjusted their translations to better reflect 's distinct , emphasizing notions such as .
One of the first recorded instances of translation in the West was the rendering of the
in the 3rd century BCE. The translation is known as the "", a name that refers to the seventy translators (seventy-two, in some versions) who were commissioned to translate the
at , . Each translator worked in solitary confinement in his own cell, and according to legend all seventy versions proved identical. The Septuagint became the
for later translations into many languages, including , ,
Still considered one of the greatest translators in history, for having rendered the
into , is , the
of translation. For centuries the
used his translation (known as the ), though even this translation at first stirred controversy.
The period preceding, and contemporary with, the
saw the translation of the
into local European languages—a development that contributed to 's split into
due to disparities between Catholic and Protestant versions of crucial words and passages (although the Protestant movement was largely based on other things, such as a perceived need for reformation of the Roman Catholic Church to eliminate corruption). Lasting effects on the religions, cultures and languages of their respective countries have been exerted by such
translations as 's into , 's into , and the 's translators' into . Debate and religious
over different translations of religious texts remain to this day, as demonstrated by, for example, the .
A famous "mistranslation" of the
is the rendering of the
word ????? (keren), which has several meanings, as "horn" in a context where it also means "beam of light". As a result, for centuries artists have depicted
with horns growing an example is 's famous sculpture.
("howlers")
The Oxford Companion to the English Language, Namit Bhatia, ed., 1992, pp. 1,051–54.
J.M. Cohen, "Translation", , 1986, vol. 27, p. 12.
, "The Translator's Endless Toil", , vol. XXVIII, no. 2, 1983, pp. 84-87.
Andrew Wilson, Translators on Translating: Inside the Invisible Art, Vancouver, CCSP Press, 2009.
W.J. Hutchins, Early Years in Machine Translation: Memoirs and Biographies of Pioneers, Amsterdam, John Benjamins, 2000.
M. Snell-Hornby, The Turns of Translation Studies: New Paradigms or Shifting Viewpoints?, Philadelphia, John Benjamins, 2006, p. 133.
, Translation studies, pp. 13-37.
, "The Translator's Endless Toil", p. 83.
Kasparek, "The Translator's Endless Toil", p. 84.
"Ideal concepts" are useful as well in other fields, such as
and , which include the concepts of perfectly solid bodies, perfectly rigid bodies, perfectly plastic bodies, perfectly black bodies, perfect crystals, perfect fluids, and perfect gases. , "Perfection in the Sciences. II. Perfection in Physics and Chemistry," Dialectics and Humanism, vol. VII, no. 2 (spring 1980), pp. 138–39.
The Columbia Encyclopedia, fifth edition, 1994, p. 2,361.
Typically, .
Typically, .
A greater problem, however, is translating terms relating to cultural concepts that have no equivalent in the target language. Some examples of this are described in the article, "Translating the 17th of May into English and other horror stories" , retrieved . For full comprehension, such situations require the provision of a .
Kasparek, "The Translator's Endless Toil", p. 85.
Kasparek, "The Translator's Endless Toil", pp. 85-86.
L.G. Kelly, cited in Kasparek, "The Translator's Endless Toil", p. 86.
Kasparek, "The Translator's Endless Toil", p. 86.
Cited by Kasparek, "The Translator's Endless Toil", p. 87, from , "O t?umaczeniu ksi?g" ("On Translating Books"), in Dzie?a wierszem i proz? (Works in Verse and Prose), 1803, reprinted in , ed., Pisarze polscy o sztuce przek?adu, : Antologia (Polish Writers on the Art of Translation, : an Anthology), p. 79.
French philosopher and writer
(1613-92) commented on translations by humanist Perrot Nicolas d'Ablancourt (1606-64): "Elles me rappellent une femme que j'ai beaucoup aimé à Tours, et qui était belle mais infidèle." ("They remind me of a woman whom I greatly loved in , who was beautiful but unfaithful.") Quoted in Amparo Hurtado Albir, La notion de fidélité en traduction, (The Idea of Fidelity in Translation), Paris, Didier ?rudition, 1990, p. 231.
, L'épreuve de l'étranger, 1984.
, "Call to Action", in The Translator's Invisibility, 1994.
, "The Translator's Endless Toil", pp. 83-87.
Crystal, Scott.
(PDF). Communicate (: Association of Translation Companies) (Winter 2004): 5.
(PDF). Journal of Clinical Research Best Practices.
, : In English, Then in French, and Then Clawed Back into a Civilized Language Once More by Patient, Unremunerated Toil, illustrated by F. Strothman, New York and London, Harper & Brothers, Publishers, MCMIII [1903].
, The History of Polish Literature, pp. 193–94.
*, "Prus' Pharaoh and Curtin's Translation," , vol. XXXI, nos. 2–3 (1986), p. 135.
, The Story of Language, p. 424.
"Interpretation" in this sense is to be distinguished from the function of an " who translates orally or by the use of .
, Joseph Conrad: A Life, 2007, p. IX.
, Joseph Conrad: A Life, 2007, p. 524.
Billiani, Francesca (2001)
For example, in , a "translation" is "przek?ad" or "t?umaczenie." Both "translator" and "interpreter" are "t?umacz." For a time in the 18th century, however, for "translator," some writers used a word, "przek?adowca," that is no longer in use. , Pisarze polscy o sztuce przek?adu, : Antologia (Polish Writers on the Art of Translation, : an Anthology), 1977, passim.
Hugh Thomas, Conquest: Montezuma, Cortes and the Fall of Old Mexico, New York, Simon and Schuster, 1993, pp. 171-72.
"Sacagawea", , 1986, volume 24, p. 72.
. The Economist. .
Graham, Paul. . Wired.co.uk.
. Benzinga.
. Digital Journal. .
Toto, Serkan (). . The Washington Post.
Vashee, Kirti (2007). . ClientSide News Magazine 7 (6): 18–20.
J.M. Cohen observes (p.14): "Scientific translation is the aim of an age that would reduce all activities to . It is impossible however to imagine a literary-translation machine less complex than the human brain itself, with all its knowledge, reading, and discrimination."
, Le défi des langues (The Language Challenge), Paris, L'Harmattan, 1994.
J.M. Cohen, p. 12.
J.M Cohen, pp. 12-13.
J.M. Cohen, p. 13.
J.M. Cohen, p. 14.
For instance, Henry Benedict Mackey's translation of 's "" 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.
A discussion of Hofstadter's otherwise latitudinarian views on translation is found in Tony Dokoupil, "," , May 18, 2009, p. 10.
For another example of poetry translation, including translation of sung texts, see .
; Bokiewicz, Jan (1977). Pisarze polscy o sztuce przek?adu, : Antologia [Writers on the art of translation, : an Anthology] (in Polish). Poznań: Wydawnictwo Poznańskie.  .
(1990). Translation studies. London & New York: Routledge.  .
(1984). L'épreuve de l'étranger: culture et traduction dans l'Allemagne romantique: Herder, Goethe, Schlegel, Novalis, Humboldt, Schleiermacher, H?lderlin (in French). Paris: Gallimard, Essais.  .
Excerpted in English in
(2004) [2002]. The translation studies reader (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.  .
(1995). Pour une critique des traductions: John Donne (in French). Paris: Gallimard.  .
English translation: ;
(2009). Toward a translation criticism: John Donne. Ohio: Kent State University Press.  .
Billiani, Francesca (2001), "Ethics", in Baker, Mona, Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, New York: Routledge,  .
Darwish, Ali (1999). "Towards a theory of constraints in translation".[]
Gouadec, Daniel (2007). Translation as a profession. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.  .
Bacigalupo, Massimo (June 2000). .
() 42 (155): 255–312. Poets and critics , ,
and others discuss the theory and practice of translation.
Godayol, Pilar (February 2013). .
() 7 (1): 97–116. :.
Gouadec, Daniel (2007). Translation as a profession. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.  .
(). XXVIII (2): 83–87.  . Includes a discussion of
of the , "translation".
() XXXI (2-3): 127–135.
Kelly, Louis (1979). The true interpreter: A history of translation theory and practice in the West. New York: St. Martin's Press.  .
(1983). The history of Polish literature (2nd ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press.  .
; Massardier-Kenney, Fran?oise (translator) (2007). Joseph Conrad: a life. : Camden House.  .
(2007). Translating style: a literary approach to translation - a translation approach to literature. New York: Routledge.  .
(1984). The story of language. New York: New American Library.  . Introduction by , revised edition.
(1994). Le défi des langues: du g?chis au bon sens [The language challenge: from chaos to common sense] (in French). Paris: L'Harmattan.  .
Rose, Marilyn Gaddis (guest editor) (January 1980). Translation: agent of communication: an international review of arts and ideas (volume 5, issue 1, special issue). Hamilton, New Zealand: Outrigger Publishers.  .
; Massardier-Kenney, Fran?oise (translator) (2007). Joseph Conrad: a life. : Camden House.  .
Baker, M Saldanha, Gabriela (2008). Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies. New York: Routledge.  .
Schleiermacher, Friedrich (author); Bernofsky, Susan (translator) (2004) [2002], "On the different methods of translating (?ber die verschiedenen Methoden des ?bersetzens 1813)", in , The translation studies reader (2nd ed.), New York: Routledge, pp. 43–63,  .
Simms, Norman T. (guest editor) (1983). Nimrod's sin: treason and translation in a multilingual world (volume 8, issue 2). Hamilton, New Zealand: Outrigger Publishers.  .
; Schopp, Jürgen F. (2013). , , , , retrieved 29 August 2013.
(1980). A history of six ideas: an essay in aesthetics. The Hague Boston Hingham, Mass: Martinus Nijhoff.  .
(1994). The translator's invisibility. New York: Routledge.  .
Zethsen, Karen K Askehave, Inger (February 2013). .
() 7 (1): 117–134. :.
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