In developing a theory of translation there are so often a number of wrong concepts that
constitute problems for the study of interlingual
communication: first, the idea that translation is a
science and second, the assumption that translating
depends on a theory of language that includes all classes
of texts, audiences, and circumstances of use.
Translating is not a separate science, but it often does
represent specialized skills and can also require
aesthetic sensitivity. Skilled translators must have a
special capacity for sensing the closest natural
equivalent of a text, whether oral or written. But
translating is essentially a skill and depends largely on a
series of disciplines, for example, linguistics, cultural
anthropology, philology, psychology, and theories of
communication. In contrast with the various sciences,
such as physics, chemistry, and biology, translation is an
activity that all bilingual people can engage in without
special studies of technical procedures. As efficient
bilinguals they quickly sense the degrees of equivalence
in comparable texts.
In the future we may be able to speak more
scientifically about translating when we know more about
the ways in which the brain manipulates information
and transfers concepts from one language to another.
Without such information about neural processes we
cannot really understand what takes place in our brains.
Some persons, however, seem to be unusually skilled in
manipulating words, phrases, and clauses. In a technical
sense a fully adequate theory of translation would
consist of a group of general and coherent principles in
matching the semantic contents of verbal utterances.
The best translators do not spend years memorizing
sets of related meanings, but they have incredibly alert
sensitivity to the meanings of corresponding
expressions in two or more languages. On one occasion
I asked the director of a famous school of translating in
Europe to tell me how many really outstanding
translators he had helped to train during the twentyfive
years in which he had directed a school of
translating, but he immediately replied that their
famous school had not trained any highly creative
translators. Such persons seem to be born with such
skills of linguistic and behavioral equivalence.
The basic problem of formulating an adequate
theory of translation is the fact that translation actually
takes place in our brains, and we do not know precisely
what actually happens. How is it that children of
only five years of age can often interpret very effectively
when scholars of fifty years often have great difficulties.
In many cases people who have never studied the
principles of translation turn out to be much more
effective translators than those who may have studied
translation in some school designed specifically for
helping people recognize linguistic and cultural
parallels and contrasts. In fact, our ignorance about
linguistic and cultural equivalences or parallels is much
greater than we like to admit.
Unfortunately, most of
the books about translating are written by persons
whose range of experience is largely academic. Would
we learn more about interlingual communication if we
studied responses of children who apparently translate
without thinking? Perhaps the following set of
principles can help new translators know how they can
best initiate themselves into the principles and
procedures of translation.written by
Eugene A.Nida
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