Translation has been a very important part of human history
Translation entails the process of changing a piece of written information from one communicating language (source) to another language (target), and this has been happening for centuries just after the appearance of written literature. Translation has been an important part of human history, not just in literature but also in communication. In her book Why Translation Matters, Edith Grossman explores the different impacts translation has on literature and human history. She explores the importance of translation in linguistics and literature, and the human history, which includes its role in civilization, increasing access to information, its influence on writers, and its importance on the language itself using real examples in her book. Her book, Why Translation Matters, is grounded on three public lectures delivered at Yale University, with supplementary remarks on translating poetry.
Translation enhances the civilization of a society, a nation, and the entire world. In enhancing civilization, translation improves intellectual progress as the written sources of information are available in different languages, which can be read by different individuals in different languages but with the same message. In her book Why Translation Matters, Edith Grossman argues that translation occupies a distinctive position in the universe’s conceptualization and the general enlightenment and civilization. She says, “The ‘‘re-birth’’ we all have studied at one time or another began as the translation into Latin and then the vernacular languages of the ancient Greek philosophy and science that had been lost to Christian Europe for centuries” (Grossman 2010, pg.13). This increases the rate of civilization in the world. Also, most of the available materials have been translated from one language to another, and as Grossman says, we mostly tend to read already translated materials. These already translated materials play an important role in increasing the enlightenment of the readers and increasing the general civilization in society.
Additionally, in enhancing civilization, translation makes it easier for people to understand human rights and international understanding by impacting the ideas and knowledge of human rights into persons using written languages easier for people to understand. Translation in a bid to improve civilization enables international understanding of literature. Edith Grossman argues that as a result of the translation of literature publications, there is an increase in the desire to read different publications, unlike it would have been if all the literature materials would have been written in the language everyone reads. She says, “Depending on your linguistic accomplishments, this would mean you might never have the opportunity to read Homer or Sophocles or Sappho, Catullus or Virgil, Dante or Petrarch or Leopardi, Cervantes or Lope or Quevedo, Ronsard or Rabelais or Verlaine, Tolstoy or Chekhov, Goethe or Heine: even a cursory list of awe-inspiring writers is practically endless, though I have not even left west-ern Europe or gone past the nineteenth century to compile it” (Grossman 2010, pg.26). Grossman argues that as a result of the desire to explore different linguistic materials, writers and authors tend to have an increased desire to learn other languages so that they may be able to translate the source, and this leads to world understanding and civilization.
Another importance of translation is its role in helping us understand and appreciate other people’s cultures. In writing literature and poetry, a lot of information is borrowed from the original writer’s culture. As a result, the translating writer re-writes the piece of literature in another language while maintaining the literature material’s culture. She argues that despite the changes in history and culture, translation of literature continues to explore different languages’ changes. Edith Grossman says, “It has been with us almost from the beginning of our history, and despite profound changes in culture, customs, and expectations, it remains with us all over the world in a variety of guises. Where literature exists, translation exists” (Grossman, 2010, pg.33). This shows how literature translation has gone into educating culture and appreciating the culture of other people expressed in literary narratives and poetry.
Translation also helps in increasing access to information and literature pieces available to other languages. The information that originally was published in other languages says Ancient Greek, Spanish or French, is now available in other languages such as English. Therefore, individuals who cannot understand the original language can get the same information in a language they understand. Edith Grossman says, “Poets of the late fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries—for example, the Spaniards Garcilaso de la Vega and Fray Luis de León—routinely translated and adapted classical and then Italian works, and these versions of Horace or Virgil or Petrarch were included as a matter of course in collections of their original poems” (Grossman 2010, pg.12). Therefore, because of this translation, such poems and other literature are available in other languages. This increases the access of the poems and other literature pieces in other languages where people can easily read and understand materials written in their language or the language they understand.
Additionally, another importance of translation of literature pieces increases the development of a language. Language is an important part of human society as it improves communication between individuals, and it develops as a result of an increase in published materials in such a language. Edith Grossman argues that translation has led to the development and growth of most languages due to increased literature materials published in such languages. She says, “A book that has not been translated into English has little likelihood of ever being made into a widely distributed movie” (Grossman 2010 pg.15). This shows how English as a language has grown and how widely it is being used worldwide. She argues that English’s growth and development have made it easier for writers and producers of literature to have most of their materials in English to increase the material’s access. Grossman says, “the English-language market is the one most writers and their agents crave for their books. English is the world’s lingua franca in commerce, technology, and diplomacy, and it tends to be spoken in places where literacy is prevalent. People are prosperous enough to purchase books, even though the number of book buyers seems to decrease steadily” (Grossman 2010, pg.15). This shows how steady growth English has had, hence easing communication between different nations and the world. She says, “In the process of translating, we endeavor to hear the first version of the work as profoundly and completely as possible, struggling to discover the linguistic charge, the structural rhythms, the subtle implications, the complexities of meaning and suggestion in vocabulary and phrasing, and the ambient, cultural inferences and conclusions these tonalities allow us to extrapolate” (Grossman 2010, pg.8). In addition to language development, translation also impacts the culture of multilingual individuals in love with literature. She argues that new vocabularies and new structures are developed for a language from translation. She says, “The result of the linguistic infusion of new means of expression is an expansion of vocabulary, evocative potentiality, and structural experimentation” (Grossman 2010, pg.22). Grossman argues that through translation, someone tends to develop a positive attitude towards multilingualism. Edith Grossman says, “translation plays an inimitable, essential part in the expansion of literary horizons through multilingual fertilization” (Grossman 2020, pg.22). She argues that because of translation, multilingual individuals evolve in every society.
Also, translation has influenced the writers themselves, as they strive to understand the language they ought to translate without changing the meaning or losing the main topics of published material. Edith Grossman argues that through translation, the writer develops a deeper understanding of the different language styles. She says, “Translation is, in fact, a powerful, pervasive force that broadens and deepens a writer’s perception of style, technique, and structure by allowing him or her to enter literary worlds not necessarily found in one national or linguistic tradition” (Grossman 2010, pg.22). This shows how translation develops writers to translate different materials while still maintaining the styles and techniques used in the original publications. This has been impactful and important, especially to the individual writers involved in translation poems. They have to strive to maintain the original writer’s poetry and give the final product unique originality in the new language. Grossman says, “As a first step toward accomplishing so exemplary an end, translators need to develop a keen sense of style in both languages, honing and expanding our critical awareness of the emotional impact of words, the social aura that surrounds them, the setting and mood that informs them, the atmosphere they create” (Grossman 2010, pg.7). And therefore, translation improves the styles and expertise of the writer.
In conclusion, Edith Grossman’s Why Translation Matters explores the roles and importance of translation to literature. Her most interesting remarks on the importance of translation to human history including but not limited to: increasing civilization and intellectual progress, understanding the culture and develop a cultural tolerance, increasing access to information and materials as well as language development, among others. She argues that translation is like the primary and sole act of writing.
Works Cited
Grossman, Edith. Why translation matters. Yale University Press, 2010.