HISTORY OF TRANSLATION

Translation before the 20th century

Group 1
1. Ghina Tsabita Utami Kadapi
2. Mayada Ayu Khoirunisa
 Translation

• The word ‘translation’ comes from a Latin term which means “to bring or
carry across”. Another relevant term comes from the Ancient Greek word of
‘metaphrasis’ which means “to speak across” and from this, the term
‘metaphrase’ was born, which means a “word-for-word translation”. These
terms have been at the heart of theories relating to translation throughout
history and have given insight into when and where translation have been
used throughout the ages.
 HISTORY OF TRANSLATION BEFORE 20TH
CENTURY
• 1. In antiquity
The translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek in the 3rd century BCE is
regarded as the first major translation in the western world. Most Jews had
forgotten Hebrew, their ancestral language, and needed the Bible to be
available in Greek to be able to read it. This translation is known as the
“Septuagint”, a name that refers to the seventy scholars who were
commissioned to translate the Hebrew Bible in Alexandria, Egypt. Each
translator worked in solitary confinement in his own cell, and according to
legend all seventy versions proved identical.
• 2. In the middle ages
In the 12th and 13th centuries, the Toledo School of Translators became a
meeting point for European scholars who travelled and settled down in
Toledo, Spain, to translate major philosophical, religious, scientific and
medical works from Arabic and Greek into Latin. Toledo was one of the few
places in medieval Europe where a Christian could be exposed to Arabic
language and culture

• 3. In the 15th Century

Ficino’s work — and Erasmus’ Latin edition of the New Testament — led to a
new attitude to translation. For the first time, readers demanded rigour in
rendering the exact words of Plato and Jesus (and Aristotle and others) as a
ground for their philosophical and religious beliefs
• 4. In the 16th Century.
For the first time, the Bible was directly translated from Hebrew and Greek
texts. After translating the whole New Testament, Tyndale began translating
the Old Testament, and translated half of it. He became a leading figure in
the Protestant Reformation before being sentenced to death for the
unlicensed possession of the Scripture in English.
• 5. In the 17th Century
In the second half of the 17th century, English poet and translator John
Dryden sought to make Virgil speak “in words such as he would probably
have written if he were living as an Englishman”. Dryden also observed that
“translation is a type of drawing after life”, thus comparing the translator to
an artist several centuries after Cicero.
6. In 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.
7. In the 19th century
There were new standards for accuracy and style. For accuracy, the policy
became “the text, the whole text, and nothing but the text (except for bawdy
passages), with the addition of extensive explanatory footnotes” (in J.M.
Cohen, “Translation” entry in “Encyclopedia Americana”, 1986, vol. 27). For
style, the aim was to constantly remind readers that they were reading a
foreign classic.
• 8. In the 20th Century
Interpreting was seen as a specialised form of translation — spoken
translation instead of written translation — before becoming a separate
discipline in the mid-20th century. Interpreting Studies gradually
emancipated from Translation Studies to concentrate on the practical and
pedagogical aspect of interpreting. It also included sociological studies of
interpreters and their working conditions, while such studies are still sorely
lacking for translators to this day
• 9. In the 21st century
Like their ancestors, contemporary translators contribute to the enrichment
of languages. When a target language lacks terms that are present in a
source language, they borrow those terms, thereby enriching the target
language.
THANK YOU