History of Translation (From the Ancient Times - Sixteenth Century)

 

History of Translation

 

1) Translation during the Ancient Times:

It is said that translation is as old as original writing, Translation, with all its confusion and multi-faceted character, reminds one of the confused Biblical conference in the Tower of Babel. Willis Barnstone considers translation as the other Babel. In his book After Babel, George Steiner divides the history of translation into four periods:

i) The first period extends from 46 B.C. to 1768. This is the period of Cicero, Horace and Alexander Frazer.

ii) The second period extends from 1769 to 1940. The eminent translators Friedrich Schliermacher and Valery Larbaud belong to this period.

 

iii) The third period extends from 1940 to 1960. Machine translation and hermeneutic translation marked this period.

 

iv) The fourth period extends from 1960 to today.

 

What is wrong with Steiner's periodization is that he does not pay due attention to developments in Pre-Christian times.

 

2) Translation in the Third Millennium B.C.

The Rosetta Stone found on the bank of the Nile in 3000 B.C. marked the beginning of translation. On this steep stone was found an inscription in two languages, Egyptian language and Greek.  Another one was the famous trilingual inscription carved by Darius on a rock in Behustan. This inscription was in three languages and they were Persian, Babylonian and Sumerian.

 

3) Translation in the First Century B.C.

 In this period Cicero, the Roman orator, and Catullus, the Roman poet, translated many Greek works into Latin. Cicero adopted the sense-to-sense approach.

 

4) Translation in the First Century A.D.

 Pliny the Young made word-for-word translations. He also indulged in much theorizing

 

5) Translation in the Fourth Century A.D. :

During this period at the behest of the Pope, St. Jerome translated the New Testament from Hebrew into Latin, adopting the sense-for-sense for approach.

                                                                                  

6) Translation in the Eighth Century:

Translation flourished during this period. The Syrian scholars in Baghdad translated the works of Aristotle, Plato, Galen, Hippocrates and other Greek writers into Arabic. In course of time Arab leaming declined Baghdad lost its importance as a centre of translation activities.

 

7) Translation in the Ninth Century:

The Toledo College of Translators in Spain gained prominence in the ninth century. This college arranged the translation of many Arabic texts into Latin. This was a very roundabout procedure, as the following diagram shows

                                     Greek--à Syriac --à Arab-à Latin

Since the translation passed through many languages, more and more errors and deviations took place and accuracy was lost. In the loledo College, Adelard of Bath translated Eucid’s Principles from Arabic into Latin.

 

 

8) Translation in the Twelfth Century

Robert de Retimes translated the Koran (Quran) into Latin. This work lasted from 1141 to 1143.  By 1200 AD. many Greek texts were translated by the translators at Toledo. To this period belongs the famous translation, Liber Gestorum Barlaam et Josphat .  This work is a story of the Buddha.  But it reads like a Christian story in the translation. 

Translation in India also was very during this period.  The Telugu Poet Nannaya

translated the Sanskrit epic The Mahabharatha into Telugu. Following his footsteps, Tikkana and Errana translated the Mahabharatha into Telugu. 

 

9) Translation in the Fourteenth Century:

The most famous translator in the fourteenth century was the Oxford theologian, John Wycliffe. He translated the Bible from Latin into English.

 

 

10) Translation in the Fifteenth Century:

 

During this period the Wycliffite Bible was revised. Another remarkable achievement during this period was the translation of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana into Bengali, thanks to the efforts taken by the Muslim rulers of the period. The Muslim rulers of the time thought that they could endear themselves to the Hindu subjects through such cultural measures. Translation of this kind from one famous language into another equally famous language is called

horizontal translation by Gianfranco Folera.

 

11) Translation in the Sixteenth Century:

 

The Sixteenth Century, that is, the Elizabethan age, witnessed tremendous developments in the field of translation. Translation activities were afoot not only in England but in other European Countries as well.

 

 

Translations of the Bible followed one after another in England. William Tyndale translated the Old Testament from Hebrew and the New Testament from Greek, both into English. The public burning of Tyndale’s Bible in 1506 did not dampen the Bible enthusiasts. Coverdale’s translation of the Bible followed in 1535.

 

Martin Luther, the German theologian who triggered the Protestant movement translated the Bible into High German. Thomas Munz, leader of the poor German peasants, sponsored a translation of the Bible from Latin to German. His intention was to equip the poor peasants with enough Biblical language to resist the Catholic clergy. All these translators of the Bible had one comnmon aim. That is, they gave top priority to meaning. They were keen only on sense-for-sense translation. They made use of colloquial expressions. Their aim was to reach the masses. They did not care for grammar.

 

Besides the Bible, many other important works were also translated.

North translated Plutarch's Lives. This work supplied stories for Shakespeare's Roman plays. Wyatt and Surrey translated some of Petrarch's Sonnets from Latin into English. They faith fully reproduced not only the words and sentence structures but also the tone of the original.

 

Other translations in the Elizabethan age worth mentioning are Florio’s translation of Montaigne's Essais, and Philemon Holland’s translations of Livy, Pliny and Xenophon and Chapman's translation of Homer’s The Iliad. Florio's essays helped Bacon. Philemon Holland is called the Translator General. He preferred the popular phrase to the striking phrase.  Chapman’s translation of Homer gave a stimulus to the young Keats later.

 

The most important translation activity in the sixteenth century was the French humanist Dolet's formulation of a theory of translation. In his book How to Translate from One Language into Another (1540), Dolet put forward five important principles of translation. They are as follows:

 

i) The translator must base himself on the sense and meaning of the original.

 

ii) The translator should be quite familiar with the Source Language (SL) as well as the Target Language (TL).

 

ii) Word-for-word translation should be avoided.

 

iv) Forms of speech that are in common use should be used by the translator.

 

v) By choosing the correct words and the correct word-order the translator should reproduce the tone of the original.

 HISTORY OF TRANSLATION