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Translation - art & business » Literature / Poetry »
Words on the art of translation
Thread poster: lien
lien
lien
Netherlands
Local time: 05:16
English to French
+ ...
Mar 10, 2004

I must be in the right forum :


"Let me premise one canon. Whoever wishes to translate, and purposes to render each word literally, and at the same time to adhere slavishly to the order of the words and sentences in the original, will meet with much difficulty; his rendering will be faulty and untrustworthy. This is not the right method. The translator should first try to grasp the sense of the subject thoroughly, and then state the theme with perfect clearness in the other l... See more
I must be in the right forum :


"Let me premise one canon. Whoever wishes to translate, and purposes to render each word literally, and at the same time to adhere slavishly to the order of the words and sentences in the original, will meet with much difficulty; his rendering will be faulty and untrustworthy. This is not the right method. The translator should first try to grasp the sense of the subject thoroughly, and then state the theme with perfect clearness in the other language. This, however, can not be done without changing the order of the words, putting many words for one word, or vice versa, and adding or taking away words, so that the subject be perfectly intelligible in the
language into which he translates."

(Rabbi Moses Maimonides, in an epistle addressed to Rabbi Samuel Ibn Tibbon, September 30, 1199
[translated from the Hebrew])


[Edited at 2004-03-10 15:15] ▲ Collapse
 
Raffaella Cornacchini
Raffaella Cornacchini  Identity Verified
Local time: 05:16
English to Italian
+ ...
more from t.s. eliot Mar 10, 2004

Words strain,
Crack and sometimes break, under the burden,
Under the tension, slip, slide, perish,
Decay with imprecision, will not stay in place,
Will not stay still.

this is absolutely the best I have found on my daily struggle with words...
raffa1
 
lien
lien
Netherlands
Local time: 05:16
English to French
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
words Mar 10, 2004

raffa1 wrote:

Words strain,
Crack and sometimes break, under the burden,
Under the tension, slip, slide, perish,
Decay with imprecision, will not stay in place,
Will not stay still.



I recognise that.
 
lien
lien
Netherlands
Local time: 05:16
English to French
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
It says it all Jul 13, 2004

Simply put, translation involves decoding of the original discourse and encoding of the target discourse.

Aiwei Shi
M.A. in English Linguistics and Literature
Xinzhou Teachers University
Shanxi, China
 


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Words on the art of translation


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