§ 2. Translation in the middle ages

The Middle Ages was the period when the Christian religion becaml firmly established. Naturally, the main object of translation was the Bible] At first, it was translated from Hebrew and Greek to Latin mostly. Latin had status as the target language, since it was the international language in science and church.

In the Middle Ages, the Holy Writ was believed to be a sacred bool "where even the word order holds a mystery",⁶³ not to be touched or changed. Therefore, transforming the form and content was considered to be a serious heresy, which resulted in the predominance of the literal translation of the Bible.

The greatest event in the early Middle Ages was the Bible as translate! by St. Jerome (342-419/20). His Bible, known as the Vulgate, or standarJ Latin Bible, had great influence on succeeding generations of translators! During the Renaissance, he was regarded as the archetype of the humanisl scholar, devoted to the beauty of correct form and language. Despite thl fact that he had been neither a miracle worker nor a martyr to his faith, hi was regarded as one of the Christian saints until the 17^th century, and recentrl the International Federation of Translators (FIT) has proclaimed Jerome'I feast day (September 30) International Translators Day.⁶⁴

Two years later, in the 4^lh century A.D., the Bible was translated intl Gothic, a Teutonic language by Bishop Wulfila (Ulfilas).

Of great significance in the history of translation was a translation schoJ established in the 9^lh century by the Anglo-Saxon king Alfred the Great. Hi inspired translators, who were mostly monks, to translate five Latin work! into Old English. That was the first attempt at translating, as Alfred put itl "books that all men should know into the language that we can all understand,"^{6 5} or the vernacular, mother tongue. The choice of source text! testifies to the wisdom of the king who would educate his people: books in history, geography, philosophy, theology, and ethics. The translation wal mostly literal. One of the translators of those days was Aelfric (9-10^lhc.l who made the first Latin to English glossary, an appendix to Latin Grammar! he claimed that translated words should preserve special features of thJ source language.

While the scientific text translation in those times was overly faithful tJ the source text, translations of fiction were, on the other hand, reworkingsl conscious borrowings, and free adaptations of the ancient texts to the tastel

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ни. I requirements of the translator's community. To create a new work, a linnslator could combine several texts, extract and shift episodes, extend Иг., ription of some abstracts, omit outdated phenomena and attitudes and ■ i mi. Therefore, these works might be called expositions rather than |l inflations.

3. RENAISSANCE TRANSLATION

I n culture this period marks a greater role of translated secular literature, becial emphasis was placed on translating the classics (ancient Greek and pman literature), which was the model for Renaissance ideas and culture. bus the object of translation changed, though the Gospel translation from Ccek into Latin was also carried out (Erasmus Desiderius, 15-16^th a). In %c late Renaissance, close to the Enlightenment period, attempts were made В translate the Scriptures into national languages.

Still being the international means of communication among educated

|( >ple, Latin was a primary target language until the 17-18^lh centuries. A new

lu-nomenon at this time was that vernaculars, or mother tongues, served

н source languages: F. Petrarch's sonnets and Gargantua and Pantagruel

by F. Rabelais were translated into Latin. F. Petrarch translated into Latin

■tic of the novels by G. Boccaccio. German entertainment literature was

translated into Latin. In the 17^th century, the English philosopher Francis

Dacon translated his philosophical works from English into Latin in order

In immortalize them.

Latin, a much-used language of great prestige, was incomprehensible lor ordinary people, few people could read it, and, being beyond the commoners, translations were accessible only to the intellectual elite. From the 16* century, humanists began to promote translation into the vernacular for an expanding readership who did not have direct access to classical Sources, the tendency widely maintained throughout the Enlightenment period.

The 10^th century gave the world the first manuscript Latin- English glossary by Abbot Aelfric.⁶⁶ The first bilingual glossary to find its way into print was a French-English vocabulary for the use of travelers, printed in England by William Caxton in 1480. The words and expressions appeared in parallel columns on twenty-six leaves. But far more substantial in character was an English-Latin vocabulary called the Promptorius puerorum

(«Storehouse [of words] for Children») completed by Pynson in 1499. It is better known under its later title of Promptoriumparvulorum sive clericorunt («Storehouse for Children or Clerics») commonly attributed to Geoffrejj the Grammarian (Galfridus Grammaticus), a Dominican friar of Norfolk, who is thought to have composed it about 1440.⁶⁷

In the Renaissance period, translators made an effort to summarize their rules and recommendations for a good translation. Such was the work by an Italian humanist, translator of Plato and Aristotle, Leonardo Brunij De interpretatione recta ("The Right Way to Translate"). One of the firsfl writers to formulate a theory of translation was the French humanist Etiennq Dolet (1509-46), who was tried and executed for heresy after "mistranslating'! one of Plato's dialogues. In 1540, Dolet published five translation principles] "How to Translate Well from One Language into Another":

(1) The translator must fully understand the sense and meaning of tha original author, although he is at liberty to clarify obscurities.

(2) The translator should have a perfect knowledge of both source language and target language.

(3) The translator should avoid word-for-word renderings.

(4) The translator should use forms of speech in common use.

(5) The translator should choose and order words appropriately to producq the correct tone.

It is evident that Dolet's principles stress the importance on understanding the source text as a primary requisite.⁶⁸ Dolet is also known] to have introduced the terms 'traduction' (translation) and 'traducteurl (translator), though the verb 'traduire' (to translate) was coined a little earlier] by Robert Esperre (1503-59) on the basis of the Italian 'traducere'.

While Renaissance secular literature was translated primarily from the] vernacular into Latin, the Bible translation was of another direction. The] cardinal principle of that time, the ideology of the Reformation, was that] each person should be granted access to the text of the Bible in his or hea own tongue, that is, in the vernacular. The result was the development oJ education and literacy. The first translation of the Bible into English waJ carried out in the 14^th century by John Wycliffe (1330-84), the noted Oxford] theologian, and his collaborators, but this work was attacked as heretical and condemned for many years to come.

One of the pivotal figures of Western civilization, as well as on Christianity, was Martin Luther, the leader of the 16th-century Reformation] movement and of Protestantism. He devoted more than a quarter of al

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i 1111 in у to creating his version of the New Testament. The main principle of I utlicr's translation was to grasp thoroughly the message and to render it in л living" German language. He even advised the future translators to Щс a vernacular proverb or expression if it fitted in with the New Testament in other words, to add to the wealth of imagery in the source language text bv 11 rawing on the vernacular tradition, too.⁶⁹

No less important for developing the national language was the English lianslation of the Bible known as the King James Bible: The Authorized I ,-ision. It was published in 1611 under the auspices of James I of England. ()!' the 54 scholars approved by James and supervised by William Tyndale (1494-1536), 47 labored in six groups at three locations for seven years, utilizing previous English translations and texts in the original languages. Tyndale intended to offer as clear a version as possible to laymen, and by Be time he was burned at the stake in 1536 he had translated the New testament from the Greek, and parts of the Old Testament from the Hebrew. rhe translation had a marked influence on English style and was generally ncccpted as the standard English Bible for more than three centuries.⁷⁰

The Renaissance period witnessed the beginning of translators' Kcepticism. Dante Aleghieri is believed to be the first to doubt the absolute possibility of the accurate translation of texts. His reasoning was that it is impossible to convey all the harmony of poetry through another language. I lis ideas were supported by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, who bglieved that no matter how artful a translator could be, he would never be as skillfull as the original author.

Though the concept of "untranslatability" is not shared by the majority of today's translators, it was a progressive theory for the time. It implied a i ejection of the naive idea of inter language identity and of identical ways to express the same thoughts in different languages.

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