Translation during the period of Classicism and

Enlightenment

SLIDE 2
Despite the official condemnations and even executions of some outstanding
adherents of the idea of sense-to-sense translation of any written matter (including
the ecclesiastic and philosophic works), the controversy between the supporters of
now three different approaches to translating continued unabated all through the
periods of Classicism (17th - 18th centuries) and Enlightenment (the 18th century).

SLIDE 3
These three trends which appeared long before and were employed during
the Middle Ages, have been mentioned already on the preceding pages and are as
follows:
1. The ancient «strict and truthful» word-for-word translation of
ecclesiastic еклізіастік (the Septuagint) Септуджінт and philosophic works. The
basic princi¬ples of the trend were considerably undermined by Luther's and
Tyndale's translations of the Bible;
2. The unrestricted free translation introduced by Horace and Apuleius,
which had established an especially strong position in France and gained many
supporters there;
3. The old trend adhering to the (сІсероз) Cicero's principle of regular
sense-to-sense translation without the unrestricted reductions or additions to the
texts/works in their final translated versions.

SLIDE 4
The supporters of the latter approach, whose voices began to be heard more
and more loudly in the 17lh and 18th centuries in various West European
countries, strongly condemned any deliberate lowering of the artistic level or
changing of the structure of the original belles-lettres works. They demanded in
J.W.Draper's words that «Celtic literature should be as Celtic as possible and
Hottentot literature as Hottentot in order that the thrill of novelty might be
maintained». The English critic meant by these words that the translator should
faithfully convey not only the content but also the artistic merits of the source
language works.

SLIDE 5
John Dryden (1630-1700), another outstanding English author and literary
critic, tried to reconcile these two historically opposite trends and sought a middle
course between the «very free», as he called the second trend, and the «very close»
(i.e. word-for-word) approach. He demanded from translators «faithfulness to the
spirit of the original» which became a regular motto in the period of Classicism
and Enlightenment, though far from all translators unanimously supported this
idea.

SLIDE 6
Thus, the German translator and literary critic G.Ventzky put forward the
idea (and vigorously supported it) that the translated best-seller works «should
seem to readers to be born, not made citizens». This was not so much a demand for
a highly artistic rendition, in the true sense of present-day understanding of faithful
artistic translation, than a slightly camouflaged principle of adjustment of the
source language works to current readers by way of free, unrestricted sense-to-
sense rendering. And he realized this postulate in his translation practice.

SLIDE 7
Alongside of these trends regular free adaptation was widely practised
during the 17th -18th centuries. The latter was considered to be a separate means or
principle of translation as well. The most outspoken defender of this kind of
«translation» in Germany was Frau Gottsched and her adherents Kriiger, Laub and
J.E.Schlegel. She openly recommended «to modernize and nationalize» the foreign
authors' works, «to change their scenes of events, customs and traditions for the
corresponding German customs and traditions.» Moreover, Frau Gottsched
recommended the use of dialectal material in translation and practised unrestricted
free interpretation of original best-seller works. These views of Frau Gottsched,
G.Ventzky and their adherents on translation radically differed from those
expressed by their sturdy opponent, the noted critic and translator J.Breitinger, who
considered the source language works to be individual creations whose
distinguishing features should be fully rendered into the target language.

SLIDE 8
Hope you have heard something interesting for you and learnt more about
translation during the period of Classicism and Enlightenment. Thank you for
attention!