GTF_my_reflection_about_theory

Through the history translation has been a very important human activity which also has been taken into account from worse to better as it first was considered a servile action that was not autonomous. Translation historically has been a profession that has taken much responsibility since many translators has been banned, censured and even executed for certain errors in translating. Therefore, knowing the history of translation is an essential aspect for those who want to become great translators, it is vital and even necessary to know where you come from to ensure you know where you are going to.

There have always been people who attempt to criticize or to question the profession of translator or interpreter because they think the action of representing a language into another is very easy or that should not be considered a career. These detractors threat against this profession and the people, is to say translators who earn their livings by translating or interpreting. That’s why it is important to know the origins of translation, we need to remember and clearly keep in mind the fact that we are not only learning a language but actually we are becoming professionals about this subject.

Translators must get familiarized with the context that involves translation, it will unmistakably pay considerable dividends between a bilingual and a professional, since we have to make the difference and show detractors that translation involves more than the ability of speaking another language apart from our native language. Therefore translators must have a wide knowledge about linguistics, grammar, pragmatics, syntax, and semantics so that the difference could be noticed at first sight.

Going further, knowing also the development of translation in history will always let us know how difficult it has been to get a good position in society for translators. It was until the renaissance that translation by no means was a secondary activity, but a primary one, exerting a shaping force on the intellectual life on the age, and at times the figure of the translator appeared almost as a revolutionary activist rather than the servant of an original author or text. Translators must defend these achievements that great translators have been capable to make through the history and this will be possible if they know how it has developed.

In conclusion, we must support what Krasicki states “Translation... is in fact an art both estimable and very difficult, and therefore is not the labor and portion of common minds; [it] should be [practiced] by those who are themselves capable of being actors, when they see greater use in translating the works of others than in their own works, and hold higher than their own glory the service that they render their country.” (Krasicki 1803) We shall have a vast, whole and enough knowledge about what professional translation involves in both aspects history and development so as always to be great artists of the languages.

References: 

Krasicki, I. (1803). A posthumous 1803 essay by "Poland's La Fontaine.