Major 6 Class Assignment

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 Name : Dangar Arpisha H.

 Paper : Major 6 

 Class : S.Y.B.A. ( English )

 College : Maharani Shree Nandkunvarba Mahila Arts and Commerce College.


                 Class Assignment

History of Translation 


1. Ancient Beginnings

Translation dates back to Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome, where texts like religious hymns, legal codes, and epic poetry were translated.

Cicero and Horace (1st century BCE) emphasized translation as a creative act, not word-for-word but sense-for-sense.



2. Medieval Period

Translation became central in

religious contexts:

St. Jerome (4th century CE) translated the Bible into Latin (the Vulgate), shaping Christian culture for centuries.

In the Islamic Golden Age, Arabic scholars translated Greek philosophical and scientific texts (e.g., Aristotle, Galen), later carried into Europe.

Translation was seen as preserving knowledge across cultures.


3. Renaissance & Early Modern Era

With the revival of classical learning, translators focused on faithfulness to original texts.

Martin Luther’s German Bible (16th c.) made scripture accessible to ordinary people → highlighted the political/religious power of translation.

This period stressed clarity, accessibility, and linguistic beauty.



4. 18th–19th Century: Romanticism & Nationalism

Translators debated domestication vs. foreignization (bringing text closer to target readers vs. keeping its foreign flavor).

Translation became tied to nation-building, spreading national literatures (e.g., Goethe reading Shakespeare in German).

Romantic thinkers emphasized the translator as a creative genius, not invisible.


5. 20th Century: Scientific & Linguistic Approaches

Eugene Nida & C. R. Taber – The Theory and Practice of Translation (1969)

Introduced formal equivalence (literal, word-for-word) and dynamic equivalence (natural, sense-for-sense).

Stressed audience reception → translation should evoke the same response in target readers as in original readers.

Important for Bible translation and global missionary work.

Translation became a science-like discipline → influenced by linguistics, anthropology, communication theory.


6. Late 20th Century: Cultural & Ethical Turn

Lawrence Venuti – The Translator’s Invisibility (1995)

Argued translation history shows how translators have been erased (kept invisible) to make texts look "fluent" and "natural".

Criticized the dominance of domestication (adapting to target culture) in English-speaking world.

Advocated foreignization → keeping traces of the original culture to resist cultural dominance.

Translation is not neutral: it is shaped by power, ideology, and cultural politics.


7. Translation as Negotiation

Umberto Eco – Mouse or Rat? Translation as Negotiation (2003)

Emphasized translation as negotiation:

Between cultures, meanings, and contexts.

Translators must make choices → not exact transfer but balancing loss and gain.

Stressed semiotics (study of signs) → meaning is never fixed, so translation is always interpretation.



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🌍 Summary

Ancient & Medieval → Preservation of sacred & classical texts.

Renaissance → Humanism, accessibility, and national languages.

18th–19th c. → Creativity, nationalism, cultural exchange.

20th c. (Nida) → Linguistic/scientific models of equivalence.

Late 20th c. (Venuti) → Translation as cultural & political act, invisibility of translators.

21st c. (Eco) → Translation as negotiation, interpretation, and intercultural dialogue.

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👉 So, the history of translation is 

not just about language — it is about religion, power, culture, ideology, and communication.


📚 References


1. Venuti, Lawrence. The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation. Routledge, 1995.


2. Eco, Umberto. Mouse or Rat? Translation as Negotiation. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003.


3. Nida, Eugene A., and Charles R. Taber. The Theory and Practice of Translation. Brill, 1969.


4. Cicero & Horace (Classical Sources).

Early writings on sense-for-sense vs. word-for-word translation.


5. St. Jerome. Letter to Pammachius (c. 395 CE).

Defended sense-for-sense Bible 

translation (Latin Vulgate).


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