Why Translate?

Anecdotes and aphorisms by Carlos Batista

Carlos Batista in the introduction to Traducteur, auteur de l’ombre (Paris: Arléa, 2014), my translation:

Why translate?

Because translation is akin to romantic conquest — in its persistent and audacious pursuit, in the way it overcomes resistance, unravels secrets, and finds the decisive phrase that will unlock the heart.

Because it is a joy to convey in our own language the striking effect that the original work had on us. As Victor Hugo said: “The translator obeys the poet as the mirror obeys the light; he reflects the dazzling glow.”

Because the concentration that is required to weigh every word and find the right meaning exercises judgement, memory, and imagination at the same time, and it teaches us as much about the beauty of our own language as it does that of the source language.

Because the translator breaks the silence that separates languages and peoples. In the translator, the place where words end marks a new beginning. He both transmits and regenerates.

I stumbled across this slim collection of anecdotes and aphorisms about translation while browsing through the library stacks, and am enjoying it. A good aphorism will rattle around in your head for days. I’ve often found myself thinking about this one:

A seventeenth-century translator used to say: “The dictionary is an indispensable footman who will expel any annoying doubts. However, the translator should not allow the footman to kick him out of his own house.”

If you read French and are interested in translation, I recommend Batista’s book. If you’re in Canada, I see that Renaud Bray has copies in stock.

Saint Jerome in His Study (the patron saint of translators), by Joos van Cleve (1528). Image from the Princeton University Art Museum.