Translators through History

In AD 629, a Chinese monk named Xuan Zang set out for India on a quest for sacred texts. He returned with a caravan of twenty-two horses bearing Buddhist treasures and spent the last twenty years of his life in the Great Wild Goose Pagoda, in present-day Xian, translating the Sanskrit manuscripts into Chinese with a team of collaborators.

In the twelfth century, scholars came t...

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In AD 629, a Chinese monk named Xuan Zang set out for India on a quest for sacred texts. He returned with a caravan of twenty-two horses bearing Buddhist treasures and spent the last twenty years of his life in the Great Wild Goose Pagoda, in present-day Xian, translating the Sanskrit manuscripts into Chinese with a team of collaborators.

In the twelfth century, scholars came to Spain from all over Europe seeking knowledge that had been transmitted from the Arab world. Their names tell the story: Adelard of Bath, Hermann of Dalmatia, Plato of Tivoli. Among them was Robert of Chester (or Robert of Kent), who was part of an elaborate team that translated documents on Islam and the Koran itself.

Doña Marina, also called la Malinche, was a crucial link between Cortés and native peoples he set out to convert and conquer in sixteenth-century Mexico. One of the conquistadors tongues or interpreters, she was also the mother of his son. She has been an ambivalent figure in the history of the new world, her own history having been rewritten in different ways over the centuries.

James Evans, an Englishman sent to evangelize and educate the natives of western Canada during the nineteenth century, invented a writing system in order to translate and transcribe religious texts. Known as the man who made birchbark talk, he even succeeded in printing a number of pamphlets, using crude type fashioned out of lead from the lining of tea chests and ink made from a mixture of soot and sturgeon oil. A jackpress used by traders to pack furs served as a press.

These are just some of the stories told in Translators through History, published under the auspices of the International Federation of Translators (FIT). Over seventy people have been involved in this project as principal authors, contributors or translators and proofreaders. The participants come from some twenty countries, reflecting the make-up and interests of FIT.

Table of illustrations xi
Foreword to the second edition xiii
Preface xix
Introduction xxiii
chapter 1 Translators and the invention of alphabets 3
Ulfila, evangelist to the Goths 4
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Table of illustrations xi
Foreword to the second edition xiii
Preface xix
Introduction xxiii
chapter 1 Translators and the invention of alphabets 3
Ulfila, evangelist to the Goths 4
Mesrop Mashtots and the flowering of Armenian culture 6
Cyril and Methodius among the Slavs 9
James Evans and the Cree of Canada 12
chapter 2 Translators and the development of national languages 21
A language for England 22
The emancipation of French 31
Martin Luther: artisan of the German language 38
The flowering of the Swedish language 43
The evolution of the Gbaya language in Cameroon 46
Hebrew: a modern language for Israel 50
chapter 3 Translators and the emergence of national literatures 61
Joost van den Vondel and the Dutch Golden Age 63
Translating Shakespeare to/on the European Continent 68
Changing sides: the case of Ireland 72
Speaking intimately to the Scottish soul – in translation 76
Jorge Luis Borges and the birth of Argentine literature 81
Translation and cultural exchange in African literatures 84
chapter 4 Translators and the dissemination of knowledge 95
China: importing knowledge through translation 98
India: at the crossroads of translation 102
Baghdad: centre of Arabic translation 106
Medieval Spain: cultural exchange and rebirth 109
The Nordic countries: breaking down the barriers of isolation 114
Machine translation: machines as translators? 117
chapter 5 Translators and the reins of power 127
The Balfour Declaration: “homeland” or “national home”? 129
Medieval translation enterprises from Baghdad to Western Europe 130
Toward multiple centres of power: the case of France 133
Translation as subversion: Italy and the former Soviet Union 138
Conquest and colonization in the New World 142
Women translators: England, the Continent and North America 143
When translators wield power 147
Reframing translation in the twenty-first century 148
chapter 6 Translators and the spread of religions 153
Judaism: the oral and written word from ancient to modern times 155
Christianity: religious texts in the languages of the world 160
Islam: the Koran, untranslatable yet abundantly translated 172
Hinduism: the case of the Bhagavad Gita 176
Buddhism: the spread of the religion across East Asia 178
Translating the sacred texts of the East 179
chapter 7 Translators and the transmission of cultural values 187
The translator’s letter home 188
The Koranic Orient and religious pluralism 193
Elizabethan England: translating with a purpose 196
A Huguenot in England: the emergence of European consciousness 200
Revolutionary France: serving the cause 202
France’s infatuation with the Gothic novel 205
The impact of translated thought: a Chinese example 209
American science fiction and the birth of a genre in France 212
chapter 8 Translators and the production of dictionaries 223
Monolingual dictionaries: from clay tablets to paper dictionaries 223
The dictionary across cultures 224
The Middle Ages, or the dawn of structured lexicography 227
The dictionary in Europe: from the Renaissance to the present 230
Bilingual and multilingual dictionaries 233
Terminological dictionaries: from specialized glossaries
to computerized term banks 237
The dictionary’s journey 242
chapter 9 Interpreters and the making of history 247
Evolving forms and methods of interpreting 249
Interpreters in the service of religion 256
Exploration and conquest 261
War and peace 266
Interpreting diplomats – diplomatic interpreters 274
appendix I Description of illustrations 285
appendix ii Contributors, translators and proofreaders 291
Works cited 297
Index of names 323
About the authors 337
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