Update: 2018-11-21 09:25 PM -0500
LiteraryTranslation.htm
- based on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translation 181001
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and staff of Tun Institute of Learning (TIL).
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UKT 181002: This is the second part of the Wikipedia article.
UKT 181112: How should I translate the common English word "Word"?
Looking at the Latin Vulgate: John 1:1, convinces me that some terms should be left un-translated for Binpathak definitions:
Latin Vulgate:
" In principio erat Verbum, et Verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat Verbum. "
English translation: - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_1:1 181111
" In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [1] [2] [3]
French translation: - https://www.google.com/...Latin+to+French+translation... 181112
" Au commencement était la Parole, et la Parole était avec Dieu, et la Parole. "
The French equivalent for English grammatical term "verb" is "verbe", which adds more confusion for the Latin Vulgate "verbum".
06.
Literary translation
--
See also Literary translation and its
indefinable nature, by J. Thangamariappan,
2016, in TIL HD-PDF and SD-PDF libraries:
-- -
JThangamariappan-LiteraryTranslation<Ô> /
Bkp<Ô> (link chk 181112)
--
"The act of translating a text from one
language into another language is an age old
activity. So far, many linguists, translators
and translation theorists have tried to form
a define that act, but, there is no authentic
description has been drawn so far."
06.1. History
Escuela de Traductores de Toledo
Translations into English
Wycliffe Bible : the first great English
translation
English middle class : end of the
influence of Italian Papacy
The 16th-17th centuries
The 18th centuries
06.2.
Modern translation
06.3. Poetry
06.4. Book titles
06.5. Plays
06.6.
Chinese literature
06.7.
Sung texts : for singing in another language
06.8.
Religious texts
08. See also
10. Bibliography
Translation of literary works (novels, short stories, plays, poems, etc.) is considered a literary pursuit in its own right. Notable in Canadian literature specifically as translators are figures such as Sheila Fischman, Robert Dickson, and Linda Gaboriau; and the Canadian Governor General's Awards 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 Lydia Davis, Vasily Zhukovsky, Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński, Vladimir Nabokov, Jorge Luis Borges, Jhumpa Lahiri, Robert Stiller, and Haruki Murakami.
In the 2010s a substantial gender imbalance was noted in literary translation into English [78], with far more male writers being translated than women writers. In 2014 Meytal Radzinski launched the Women in Translation campaign to address this. [79] [80] [81]
The first important translation in the West was that of the Septuagint, a collection of Jewish Scriptures translated into early Koine Greek in Alexandria [Egypt] between the 3rd and 1st centuries BCE. The dispersed Jews had forgotten their ancestral language and needed Greek versions (translations) of their Scriptures. [82]
See Septuagint [from the Latin: septuāgintā literally "seventy", often abbreviated as or LXX] in TIL HD-PDF and SD-PDF libraries
- NETS-Septuagint<Ô> / Bkp<Ô> (link chk 181108)
Translation profile of the Greek: General character - "The overall assessment of Greek Genesis is that, lexically and syntactically, it is strict, quantitative representation of its source text. Thus the concept proposed in NETS discussions of the Septuagint (LXX) as an interlinear translation is an apt metaphor for this book because of the significant degree of on the Hebrew that it exhibits. However, this general characterization of LXX Genesis as being slavishly subservient to the Hebrew needs to be nuanced somewhat in the light of the
Greek translator's periodic departures from his typical patterns to produce renderings that reflect Greek usage rather than Hebrew idiom, or that, in one way or another, contextualize a given passage for the benefit of the Greek reader.
Throughout the Middle Ages, [In the history
of Europe, the Middle Ages aka Medieval
period, 5th - 15th century.],
Latin [speech of Rome written in Latin alphabet]
was the lingua franca of the western learned
world. [UKT ¶]
The 9th-century Alfred the Great, king of Wessex in England, was far ahead of his time in commissioning vernacular Anglo-Saxon translations of Bede's Ecclesiastical History and Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy. [UKT ¶]
See Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy, by W. V. Cooper, 2009 in TIL HD-PDF and SD-PDF libraries
- WVCooper-BoethiusConsolPhilo<Ô> / Bkp<Ô> (link chk 181111)
"THE incompatibility of the sufferings of good men, the impunity and success of bad men, with the government of the world by a good God, has been a subject of thought among men ever since religion and abstract questions have occupied the thoughts of mankind."
Meanwhile, the Christian Church frowned on
even partial adaptations of St. Jerome's
Vulgate of c. 384 CE,
[83] the standard Latin
Bible.
Watch downloaded video from Classical Academic in Christ section of TIL HD-VIDEO on Latin Vulgate of John chapter 1.
- John01LatinVulgate<Ô> (link chk 181111)
Latin Vulgate:
" In principio erat Verbum, et Verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat Verbum. "
English translation: - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_1:1 181111
" In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [1] [2] [3]
French translation: - https://www.google.com/...Latin+to+French+translation... 181112
" Au commencement était la Parole, et la Parole était avec Dieu, et la Parole. "UKT 181112: How should I translate the common English word "Word"?
Looking at the Latin Vulgate: John 1:1, convinces me that some words are best left un-translated for BEPS definitions:
In Asia, the spread of Buddhism led to large-scale ongoing translation efforts spanning well over a thousand years. [UKT ¶]
UKT 181111: Though loosely described as translation, is it interpretation ?
Remember, Buddha had allowed his missionary-monks to spread his words in their own language.
See: ¤ Language problem of primitive Buddhism, by Chi Hisen-lin (季羡林 , 1911 – 2009)
- lang-probl.htm (link chk 181111)
The Tangut Empire was especially efficient in such efforts; exploiting the then newly invented block printing, 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 Chinese centuries to render. [citation needed]
UKT 181111: See Wikipedia:
• Tangut Empire - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Xia - 181111
"The Western Xia (Chinese: 西夏; pinyin: Xī Xià; Wade–Giles: Hsi¹ Hsia4 ), also known as the Xi Xia Empire, to the Mongols as the Tangut Empire and to the Tangut people themselves and to the Tibetans as Mi-nyak, [3] was an empire which existed from 1038 to 1227 in what are now the northwestern Chinese provinces of Ningxia, Gansu, eastern Qinghai, northern Shaanxi, northeastern Xinjiang, southwest Inner Mongolia, and southernmost Outer Mongolia, measuring about 800,000 square kilometres (310,000 square miles). [4] [5] [6] The early capital was established at Ningxia. By the 12th century Tangut power had shifted to Kharakhoto on the border of Mongolia; with the city's utter destruction in 1227 by the Mongols who founded the Mongol Empire, along with the political entity most of its written records and architecture were destroyed. Therefore, its founders and history remained obscure until 20th-century research in the West and in China. "UKT 181112: Tibetan aksharas are related to Myanmar aksharas, both being Abugida-Akshara scripts. The following are Tibetan consonants beginning U+0F40 {ka.} with in BEPS aksharas.
ཀ {ka.} ཁ {hka.} ག {ga.} གྷ {Ga.} ང {gna.}
ཅ {sa.} ཆ {hsa.} ཇ {za.} -------- ཉ {ña.}
ཊ {Ta.} ཋ {HTa.} ཌ {ða.} ཌྷ {Ða.} ཎ {Na.}
ཏ {ta.} ཐ {hta.} ད {da.} དྷ {Da.} ན {na.}
པ {pa.} ཕ {hpa.} བ {ba.} བྷ {Ba.} མ {ma.}vowel-signs
ུ {u.} ེ{é}
Since, Tibetan script and Myanmar script are of the same linguistic group, Tibeto-Burman, translation would have been easy. Even if translated from Devanagari script of northern India, because of Devanagari's relation to Magadha Mahajanapada, the homeland of Buddhism, translation would have been relatively easy. One can rely on Shin Kic'si motto: "The meaning is known by akshara". However, since Chinese is outside the cultural family of Magadha, it is not surprising that it would take longer time to translate the Buddhist texts.
• Gu'ge Empire (10th century -1630) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guge 181112
"Guge ( Tibetan: གུ གེ{gu.gé}, Wylie: gu ge) was an ancient kingdom in Western Tibet. The kingdom was centered in present-day Zanda County, Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region. At various points in history after the 10th century AD, the kingdom held sway over a vast area including south-eastern Zanskar, Upper Kinnaur district, and Spiti Valley, either by conquest or as tributaries. The ruins of the former capital of the Guge kingdom are located at Tsaparang in the Sutlej valley, not far from Mount Kailash and 1,200 miles (1,900 km) westwards from Lhasa.
The Arabs undertook large-scale efforts at translation. Having conquered the Greek world, they made Arabic versions of its philosophical and scientific works. During the Middle Ages, translations of some of these Arabic versions were made into Latin, chiefly at Córdoba in Spain. [84] 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 Toledo [in Spain]. [UKT ¶ ]
Escuela de Traductores de Toledo
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toledo_School_of_Translators 181114
"The Toledo School of Translators (Spanish: Escuela de Traductores de Toledo) is the group of scholars who worked together in the city of Toledo during the 12th and 13th centuries, to translate many of the philosophical and scientific works from Classical Arabic."
UKT 181114: Since Arabic, and Hebrew script are from right to left, and European scripts from left to right, and the respective speeches belong to differing cultures and religions, I opine the resultant is more an interpretation rather than translation.
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. [UKT ¶]
Latin translations of Greek and original Arab works of scholarship and science helped advance European Scholasticism, and thus European science and culture. [UKT 181116: a term that should be understood together with Scholasticism is Humanism.
scho·las·ti·cism - n. ¹. Often Scholasticism . The dominant western Christian theological and philosophical school of the Middle Ages, based on the authority of the Latin Fathers and of Aristotle and his commentators. ². Close adherence to the methods, traditions, and teachings of a sect or school. ³. Scholarly conservatism or pedantry. - AHTD
UKT 161116: Philosopher Aristotle (384-322BC.) was Greek, and he lived long before the time of Jesus. Dying without being baptised, he would not be able enter the Christian Heaven. So the Latin Fathers classed him, and others like him in the First Circle of Purgatory. See Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuous_pagan 181116
hu·man·ism - n. ¹. A system of thought that centers on human beings and their values, capacities, and worth. ². Concern with the interests, needs, and welfare of human beings: “the newest flower on the vine of corporate humanism” Savvy ³. The study of the humanities; learning in the liberal arts. 4. Humanism - A cultural and intellectual movement of the Renaissance that emphasized secular concerns as a result of the rediscovery and study of the literature, art, and civilization of ancient Greece and Rome. - AHTD
See also Scholasticism and Humanism in Classical Islam and the Christian West, by George Makdisi, 2010
- GMakdisi-ScholasticismHumanism<Ô> / Bkp<Ô> (link chk 181116)Refer also to Section 04 on LANGUAGE, MEANING, RELIGION & THOUGHT
¤ Dissent and protest in the ancient Indian Buddhism - Buddh-sch-indx.htm - update 2018Nov
- by Ven. Tran Dong Nhat (b.1968), Univ. of Delhi, 2008. Ph.D. thesis. The first schism of note in Myanmarpré occurred in 18th century known as {a.roän}-{a.tín} controversy in which the leader of {a.tín} who was a very learned monk and his close associates were disrobed.
UKT 181115: Because of the sensitive nature of the subject, I'm working on this paper only to serve as a reference.
The broad historic trends in Western translation practice may be illustrated on the example of translation into the English language.
The first fine translations into English were made in the 14th century by Geoffrey Chaucer, who adapted from the Italian-language of Giovanni Boccaccio in his own Knight's Tale and Troilus and Criseyde; began a translation of the French-language Roman de la Rose; and completed a translation of Boethius from the Latin. Chaucer founded an English poetic tradition on adaptations and translations from those earlier-established literary languages. [84]
UKT 181112: Read in TIL HD-PDF and SD-PDF libraries:
• Boccaccio's Decameron, from Coradella Colligiate, pub. date not given,
- CoradellaColligiate-BoccaccioDecameron<Ô> / Bkp<Ô> (link chk 181112)
• Roman de la Rose, by G de Lorris and J de Meum, rendition by C. Dahlberg, 1971
- CDahlberg-GLorrisRomanRose<Ô> / Bkp<Ô> (link chk 181113)
"THE Romance of the Rose was, for nearly three hundred years after its composition in the thirteenth century, one of the most widely read works of the French language. Since French was the official language of the English court for many years, it was nearly as important there as in France. The decline of its popularity after the sixteenth century can be attributed to a major shift in taste, ..."
The first great English translation [of 14th century] was the Wycliffe Bible (c. 1382), which showed the weaknesses of an underdeveloped English prose. [UKT ¶]
UKT 181117: Timeline in Burmese history from Wikipedia:
• 1364-1555 - Ava Kingdom was the dominant kingdom that ruled upper Burma
• 1373 - North Arakan asks for a Burmese regent
• 1383 - Princess Maha Dewi becomes regent of Hanthawaddy Pegu in lower Burma
• 1384 - Razadarit becomes king of Pegu
• 1385 - Forty Years' War between Ava and Hanthawaddy Pegu begins
It is instructive to see the progress of Bur-Myan language in upper Burma, and that of Mon-Myan in lower Burma. Pali-Myan, in which Theravada Buddhist texts are written is commonly known to both Burmese and Mon speakers.Read in TIL HD-PDF and SD-PDF libraries on John Wycliff and the English Bible, by F. F. Bruce, 1984
- FFBruce-JohnWycliffEngBible<Ô> / Bkp<Ô> (link chk 181117)
"Of John Wycliffe’s early life we know next to nothing. His birth has been dated between 1320 and 1330; it should probably be placed later rather than earlier in that decade. It is natural to suppose that his family name was derived from the manor of Wycliffe in the North Riding of Yorkshire, on the south bank of the Tees. But when surviving records first mention him, he is already making a name for himself at Oxford."See also Wycliffe Bible - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wycliffe%27s_Bible 181117
"Then later on, after John Wycliffe was dead, The Council of Constance declared Wycliffe (on 4 May 1415) a heretic and under the ban of the Church. It was decreed that his books be burned and his remains be exhumed. In 1428, at the command of Pope Martin V, Wycliffe's remains were dug up, burned, and the ashes cast into the River Swift, which flows through Lutterworth.
Only at the end of the 15th century did the great age of English prose translation begin with Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur -- an adaptation of Arthurian romances so free that it can, in fact, hardly be called a true translation. [UKT ¶]
UKT 181113: Read Le Morte d'Arthur , by Sir Thomas Malory, in TIL HD-PDF and SD-PDF libraries:
• TMalory-LeMorteDAuthur<Ô> / Bkp<Ô> (link chk 181113)
The first great Tudor translations are, accordingly, the Tyndale New Testament (1525), which influenced the Authorized Version (1611), and Lord Berners' version of Jean Froissart's Chronicles (1523–25). [84]
UKT: 181113: Tudor Period: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tudor_period 181113
"The Tudor period is the period between 1485 and 1603 in England and Wales and includes the Elizabethan period during the reign of Elizabeth I until 1603.
Meanwhile, in Renaissance Italy, a new period in the history of translation had opened in Florence with the arrival, at the court of Cosimo de' Medici, of the Byzantine scholar Georgius Gemistus Pletho shortly before the fall of Constantinople to the Turks (1453). [UKT ¶]
For the story of City of Constantinople, the center of Greek Church, its weakening by the Crusaders Roman Church, and final rebirth as Istanbul as a Muslim city, read:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantinople 181114
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Crusade 181114
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_Istanbul 181114
"It [Istanbul] is an Arabic calqued form of Constantinople, with an Arabic ending meaning 'place of' instead of the Greek element -polis. After the Ottoman conquest of 1453, it was used as the most formal official name in Ottoman Turkish, ..."
A Latin translation of Plato's works [in Greek language] was undertaken by Marsilio Ficino. This and Erasmus' Latin edition of the New Testament 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 Plato, Aristotle and Jesus. [84]
UKT 181117: Note the language of Plato and Aristotle was Greek, whereas that of Jesus was Hebrew. The words of Jesus was first translated into Greek, and then into Latin. By the time the words of Jesus were translated into English, they would be interpretation and not translation .
UKT 181117: On English middle class, see The Emerging English Middle Class: Illusory Upward Mobility and the Static Elite, by Jordan Boyd-Graber, H 155: Feingold, December 17, 2006, in TIL HD-PDF and SD-PDF libraries:
- JBoydGraber-EngMiddleClass<Ô> / Bkp<Ô> (link chk 181117)
"The Britain of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries straddled the globe and thrust itself into the affairs of every continent and every nation. These changes in the world order were reflections of changes within Britain itself; the kingdom’s newly forged hegemony was a product of its industry and trade, new developments only possible through a restructuring of society."See also The Civilising Mission and the English Middle Class, 1792-1850: The ‘Heathen’ at Home and Overseas, by Alison Twells.
"Mary-Anne (Read) Rawson (1801–87) was everyone and no one. Raised in a family on the cusp of a professionalizing industrial Sheffield, as presented in Alison Twells’s study, Mary-Anne and women like her both personified the absolute personal intimacy of evangelical piety, and married their belief and middle class privilege with a public critique of both the poor and poverty. In their having done so, Twells argues that such women affected change not only in individual lives, but also contributed to shaping the outlook of a maturing British nation as it grew as an imperial power across the 19th century."
Non-scholarly literature, however, continued to rely on adaptation. France's Pléiade, England's Tudor poets, and the Elizabethan translators adapted themes by Horace [Quintus Horatius Flaccus (65BC–8BC)], Ovid [Publius Ovidius Naso (43BC–17/18AD)], Petrarch [Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374AD)] and modern Latin writers, forming a new poetic style on those models. [UKT ¶]
The English poets and translators sought to supply a new public, created by the rise of a middle class and the development of printing, with works such as the original authors would have written, had they been writing in England in that day. [84]
UKT 181118: Read in TIL HD-PDF and SD-PDF libraries:
• Henry VIII: Supremacy, Religion, and the Anabaptists, by Joel Gillaspie, MA (History) Thesis, Utah State Univ., 2008,
- JGillaspie-HenryVIIISuprecyReligion<Ô> / Bkp<Ô> (link chk 181118)
"The complete severance of papal power in England came in 1534 with the passing of the Act of Supremacy, which gave Henry VIII full power as Supreme Head of the Church of England."• The Vilification of Mary Tudor: Religion, Politics, and Propaganda in Sixteenth-Century England, by Lorin Scott, MA (History) Thesis, Texas Tech University, 2014
- LScott-VilificationMaryTudor<Ô> / Bkp<Ô> (link chk 181118)
"[Queen] Mary further commanded that no English subject should preach, teach, or interpret Scripture unless he had been trained at a university. This instruction was important because Protestantism encouraged laymen to read and teach the Scriptures. However, Catholics believed that only men trained and ordained had the proper authority to interpret the Scriptures accurately. Lastly, the pronouncement stated that “neither shall they print any book, treatise, dialogue, rhyme, ballad, comedy or argument except by special, written command of her Majesty, under pain of her displeasure."
The Elizabethan period of translation [after Elizabeth I (1558–1603)] saw considerable progress beyond mere paraphrase toward an ideal of stylistic equivalence, but even to the end of this period, which actually reached to the middle of the 17th century, there was no concern for verbal accuracy. [85] ]
In the second half of the 17th century, the poet John Dryden sought to make Virgil speak "in words such as he would probably have written if he were living and an Englishman". [UKT ¶]
See Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeneid 181119
"The Aeneid (Latin: Aeneis is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, [1] that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans.UKT 181117: See in the TIL HD-PDF and SD-PDF libraries:
The AENEID by VIRGIL translated by John Dryden , edited, annotated, and compiled by Rhonda L. Kelley
- JDryden-VirgilAeneid<Ô> / Bkp<Ô> (link chk 181117)(from pdf p7/123)
"When Venus [fn29] saw, she with a lowly look,
Not free from tears, her heav'nly sire bespoke:
"O King of Gods and Men! whose awful hand
Disperses thunder on the seas and land,
Disposing all with absolute command;
How could my pious son thy pow'r incense?
Or what, alas! is vanish'd Troy's offense?"[fn29] - Goddess of love and Aeneas’ mother.
As great as Dryden's poem is, however, one is reading Dryden, and not experiencing the Roman poet's concision. Similarly, Homer arguably suffers from Alexander Pope's endeavor to reduce the Greek poet's "wild paradise" to order. Both works live on as worthy English epics, more than as a point of access to the Latin or Greek. [85]
The 18th century
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 James Macpherson's "translations" of Ossian -- from texts that were actually of the "translator's" own composition. [85]
UKT 181121: See in the TIL HD-PDF and SD-PDF libraries:
The Poetical works of Ossian, by James Macpherson, 1765
- JMacpherson-Ossian<Ô> / Bkp<Ô> (link chk 181121)
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 bawdy passages and the addition of copious explanatory footnotes. [86] In regard to style, the Victorians' aim [named after Queen Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 1819-1901)], achieved through far-reaching metaphrase (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, Edward FitzGerald's Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (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. [85]
UKT 181118: See Rubaiyat [4-lined poems] of Omar Khayyam (1048-1131AD) in TIL HD-PDF and SD-PDF libraries
- EFitzGerald-RubaiyatOmarKayyam<Ô> / Bkp<Ô> (link chk 181118)
"Wake! For the Sun who scatter'd into flight
The Stars before him from the Field of Night
Drives Night along with them from Heav'n and strike
The Sultan's Turret, with a Shaft of Light."
In advance of the 20th century, a new pattern was set in 1871 by Benjamin Jowett, who translated Plato 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. [85]
As a language evolves, texts in an earlier version of the language -- original texts, or old translations -- may become difficult for modern readers to understand. Such a text may therefore be translated into more modern language, producing a "modern translation" (e.g., a "modern English translation" or "modernized translation").
Such modern rendering is applied either to literature from classical languages such as Latin or Greek, notably to the [Christian] Bible (see " Modern English Bible translations"), or to literature from an earlier stage of the same language, as with the works of William Shakespeare (which are largely understandable by a modern audience, though with some difficulty) or with Geoffrey Chaucer's Middle English Canterbury Tales (which is understandable to most modern readers only through heavy dependence on footnotes).
Modern translation is applicable to any language with a long literary history. For example, in Japanese the 11th-century Tale of Genji is generally read in modern translation (see " Genji: modern readership").
Modern translation often involves literary scholarship and textual revision, as there is frequently not one single canonical text. This is particularly noteworthy in the case of the Bible and Shakespeare, where modern scholarship can result in substantive textual changes
Modern translation meets with opposition from some traditionalists. In English, some readers prefer the Authorized King James Version of the Bible to modern translations, and Shakespeare in the original of c. 1600 to modern translations
An opposite process involves translating modern literature into classical languages, for the purpose of extensive reading (for examples, see " List of Latin translations of modern literature").
Views on the possibility of satisfactorily translating poetry show a broad spectrum, depending largely on the degree of latitude to be granted the translator in regard to a poem's formal features (rhythm, rhyme, verse form, etc.).
Douglas Hofstadter, in his 1997 book, Le Ton beau de Marot, argued that a good translation of a poem must convey as much as possible not only of its literal meaning but also of its form and structure (meter, rhyme or alliteration scheme, etc.). [87]
The Russian-born linguist and semiotician Roman Jakobson, however, had in his 1959 paper " On Linguistic Aspects of Translation", declared that "poetry by definition [is] untranslatable".
Vladimir Nabokov, another Russian-born author, took a view similar to Jakobson's. He considered rhymed, metrical, versed poetry to be in principle untranslatable and therefore rendered his 1964 English translation of Alexander Pushkin's Eugene Onegin in prose
Hofstadter, in Le Ton beau de Marot, criticized Nabokov's attitude toward verse translation. In 1999 Hofstadter published his own translation of Eugene Onegin, in verse form
Gregory Hays, in the course of discussing Roman adapted translations of ancient Greek literature, makes approving reference to some views on the translating of poetry expressed by David Bellos, an accomplished French-to-English translator. Hays writes:
Among the idées reçues [received ideas] skewered by David Bellos is the old saw that "poetry is what gets lost in translation." The saying is often attributed to Robert Frost, but as Bellos notes, the attribution is as dubious as the idea itself. A translation is an assemblage of words, and as such it can contain as much or as little poetry as any other such assemblage. The Japanese even have a word (chōyaku, roughly "hypertranslation") to designate a version that deliberately improves on the original. [88]
Book-title translations can be either descriptive or symbolic. Descriptive book titles, for example Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince), are meant to be informative, and can name the protagonist, and indicate the theme of the book. An example of a symbolic book title is Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, whose original Swedish title is Män som hatar kvinnor (Men Who Hate Women). Such symbolic book titles usually indicate the theme, issues, or atmosphere of the work.
When translators are working with long book titles, the translated titles are often shorter and indicate the theme of the book. [89]
The translation of plays poses many problems such as the added element of actors, speech duration, translation literalness, and the relationship between the arts of drama and acting. Successful play translators are able to create language that allows the actor and the playwright to work together effectively. [90] Play translators must also take into account several other aspects: the final performance, varying theatrical and acting traditions, characters' speaking styles, modern theatrical discourse, and even the acoustics of the auditorium, i.e., whether certain words will have the same effect on the new audience as they had on the original audience. [91]
Audiences in Shakespeare's time were more accustomed than modern playgoers to actors having longer stage time. [92] Modern translators tend to simplify the sentence structures of earlier dramas, which included compound sentences with intricate hierarchies of subordinate clauses. [93] [94]
In translating Chinese literature, translators struggle to find true fidelity in translating into the target language. In The Poem Behind the Poem, Barnstone argues that poetry "can't be made to sing through a mathematics that doesn't factor in the creativity of the translator". [95]
A notable piece of work translated into English is the Wen Xuan, an anthology representative of major works of Chinese literature. Translating this work requires a high knowledge of the genres presented in the book, such as poetic forms, various prose types including memorials, letters, proclamations, praise poems, edicts, and historical, philosophical and political disquisitions, threnodies and laments for the dead, and examination essays. Thus the literary translator must be familiar with the writings, lives, and thought of a large number of its 130 authors, making the Wen Xuan one of the most difficult literary works to translate. [96]
Translation generally, much as with Kurt Gödel's conception of mathematics, requires, to varying extents, more information than appears in the page of text being translated.
Translation of a text that is sung in vocal music
for the purpose of singing in another language
[speech
{sa.ka:}] -- sometimes called "singing
translation" -- is closely linked to translation
of poetry because most
vocal music, at least in the Western tradition,
is set to verse, especially verse in regular
patterns with rhyme. (Since the late 19th
century, musical setting of prose and free
verse has also been practiced in some art
music, though popular music tends to remain
conservative in its retention of
stanzaic forms with or without
refrains.) A rudimentary example of translating
poetry for singing is church hymns, such as the
German
chorales translated into English by
Catherine Winkworth.
[97]
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 contrafactum.
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 surtitles projected during opera 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.
Surtitles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surtitles - 181116
"Surtitles, aka supertitles, are translated or transcribed lyrics/ dialogue projected above a stage or displayed on a screen, commonly used in opera or other musical performances. The word "surtitle" comes from the French language "sur", meaning "over" or "on", and the English language word "title", formed in a similar way to the related subtitle.
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, Buddhist monks who translated the Indian sutras into Chinese [language] occasionally adjusted their translations to better reflect China's distinct culture, emphasizing notions such as filial piety.
One of the first recorded instances of translation in the West was the rendering of the Old Testament into Greek [language] in the 3rd century BCE. The translation is known as the " Septuagint", a name that refers to the supposedly seventy translators (seventy-two, in some versions) who were commissioned to translate the Bible at Alexandria, Egypt. According to legend, each translator worked in solitary confinement in his own cell, and, according to legend, all seventy versions proved identical. The Septuagint became the source text for later translations into many languages, including Latin, Coptic, Armenian and Georgian.
From: Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euthymius_the_Athonite 181121
"He, [Euthymius the Athonite (Georgian: ექვთიმე ათონელი Ekvtime Atoneli; c. 955–1024] was a renowned Georgian philosopher and scholar. ] He subsequently became the leader of the Georgian Iviron monastery, which had been founded by his father,[3] and emerged as one of the finest Eastern Christian theologians and scholars of his age. Fluent in Georgian, Greek and other languages, he translated many religious treatises and philosophical works. Among his major works was the translation of sibrdzne balavarisa (Wisdom of Balahvari), a Christianized version of episodes from the life of Gautama Buddha that became very popular in Medieval Europe as the story of Barlaam and Josaphat. "
UKT 181121: I hold that Georgian alphabet was derived from Myanmar akshara, and the name "ექვთიმე ათონელი" could be translated into Pali-Myan. For pronunciation, we can rely on Greek Ekvtime Atoneli .
First part: ე "En", ქ "Khar", ვ "Vin", თ "Tan", ი "In' ; მ "Man", ე "En"
Second part: ა "An", თ "Tan", ო "On", ნ "Nar", ე "En", ლ "Las", ი "In"
texts of Buddhism were first translated by St Euthymius in the Georgian
monastery on Mount Athos
-
http://www.cg.itnovations.ge/?54/Religion 181121
Still considered one of the greatest translators in history, for having rendered the Bible into Latin, is Jerome of Stridon, the patron saint of translators. For centuries the Roman Catholic Church used his translation (known as the Vulgate), though even this translation at first stirred controversy.
The periods preceding and contemporary with the Protestant Reformation saw translations of the Bible into vernacular (local) European languages -- a development that contributed to Western Christianity's split into Roman Catholicism and Protestantism due to disparities between Catholic and Protestant versions of crucial words and passages (though the Protestant movement was largely based on other things, such as a perceived need to reform the Roman Catholic Church to eliminate corruption). Lasting effects on the religions, cultures, and languages of their respective countries were exerted by such Bible translations as Martin Luther's into German, Jakub Wujek's into Polish, and William Tyndale's and later the King James Bible's translators' into English.
Efforts to translate the Bible into English had their martyrs. William Tyndale (c. 1494–1536) was convicted of heresy at Antwerp [Belgium], was strangled to death while tied at the stake, and then his dead body was burned. [98] Earlier, John Wycliffe (c. mid-1320s – 1384) had managed to die a natural death, but 30 years later the Council of Constance in 1415 declared him a heretic and decreed that his works and earthly remains should be burned; the order, confirmed by Pope Martin V, was carried out in 1428, and Wycliffe's corpse was exhumed and burned and the ashes cast into the River Swift. Debate and religious schism over different translations of religious texts continue, as demonstrated by, for example, the King James Only movement.
One famous mistranslation of a
Biblical text is the rendering of the
Hebrew word
קֶרֶן
(keren), which has several meanings, as
"horn" in a context where it more
plausibly means "beam of light": as
a result, for centuries artists, including
sculptor Michelangelo, have rendered
Moses the Lawgiver with horns growing from his
forehead.
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Moses_(Michelangelo) 181116
"This was Jerome's effort to faithfully translate the difficult, original Hebrew Masoretic text, which uses the term קָרַ֛ן, qāran (based on the root, קָ֫רֶן qeren, which often means "horn"); the term is now interpreted to mean "shining" or "emitting rays" (somewhat like a horn). [12] [13] "
Such fallibility of the translation process has contributed to the Islamic world's ambivalence about translating the Quran (also spelled Koran) out of the original Arabic, as received by the Prophet Muhammad from Allah (God) through the Angel Gabriel. [UKT ¶]
UKT 181116: My understanding of the word Allah is "one beyond human comprehension". As such, it is not the Christian God, or Jewish YHVH, or Mahadéva of the Hindus. Luckily for Buddhists, they do not assume the presence of such an Axiomatic Being.
During prayers, the Quran, as the miraculous and inimitable word of Allah, is recited only in Arabic. However, as of 1936, it had been translated into at least 102 languages. [99]
A fundamental difficulty in translating the Quran accurately stems from the fact that an Arabic word, like a Hebrew or Aramaic word, may have a range of meanings, depending on context. This is said to be a linguistic feature, particularly of all Semitic languages, that adds to the usual similar difficulties encountered in translating between any two languages. [99] There is always an element of human judgment -- of interpretation -- involved in understanding and translating a text. Muslims regard any translation of the Quran as but one possible interpretation of the Quranic (Classical) Arabic text, and not as a full equivalent of that divinely communicated original. Hence such a translation is often called an "interpretation" rather than a translation. [100]
To complicate matters further, as with other languages, the meanings and usages of some expressions have changed over time, between the Classical Arabic of the Quran, and modern Arabic. Thus a modern Arabic speaker may misinterpret the meaning of a word or passage in the Quran. Moreover, the interpretation of a Quranic passage will also depend on the historic context of Muhammad's life and of his early community. Properly researching that context requires a detailed knowledge of hadith and sirah, which are themselves vast and complex texts. Hence, analogously to the translating of Chinese literature, an attempt at an accurate translation of the Quran requires a knowledge not only of the Arabic language and of the target language, including their respective evolutions, but also a deep understanding of the two cultures involved.
Technical translation renders documents such as manuals, instruction sheets, internal memos, minutes, financial reports, and other documents for a limited audience (who are directly affected by the document) and whose useful life is often limited. Thus, a user guide for a particular model of refrigerator is useful only for the owner of the refrigerator, and will remain useful only as long as that refrigerator model is in use. Similarly, software documentation generally pertains to a particular software, whose applications are used only by a certain class of users. [101]
UKT: There are all together 101 Wiki notes for the undivided Wikipedia article which I've split into two. Since, I've left the links active to Wikipedia website, I have not reproduced them.
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