Module VII·Article I·~1 min read
Translation Theory: What Is Lost and What Is Found
Translation, Intercultural Communication, and Loss in Translation
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The Impossibility of Translation
Walter Benjamin ("The Task of the Translator," 1923) posed the question radically: the goal of translation is not to convey the meaning of the original (this is impossible), but to reveal the "pure language"—that which every language strives to express, yet is never fully able to. Translation is not a substitution for the original, but its afterlife (Nachleben).
This sounds mystical—but it points to a real problem. Every language has concepts that are untranslatable directly. "Schadenfreude" (Ger.)—pleasure derived from another’s misfortune. "Saudade" (Port.)—a melancholic longing for something loved and lost. "Toska" (Rus.)—Nabokov: "no other language has this word, no combination of words will convey its shades." Japanese "木漏れ日" (komorebi)—the light filtering through the leaves of trees.
Barbara Cassin's project "Dictionary of Untranslatables: A Philosophical Lexicon"—a dictionary of untranslatable philosophical concepts. Untranslatability is not a drawback, but a richness: different languages perceive different aspects of reality.
Equivalence and Translation Strategies
Eugene Nida—"dynamic equivalence": translation should produce the same effect on the reader as the original does on its reader, even if by different means. "Formal equivalence" (word-for-word) vs. "dynamic" (effect-for-effect).
The translation of the Bible is a textbook example. "Our daily bread" (panem nostrum quotidianum)—literal, but not very clear. "Food necessary for us each day"—more understandable, but less solemn. The translator always makes a choice.
Heidegger is practically untranslatable: his German uses the etymological resources of the German language, which are lacking in other languages. "Dasein"—literally "being-there." Neither "existence" nor "being-there" conveys this semantics.
Question for Reflection: Recall negotiations with foreign partners or partners from another corporate culture. What was "lost in translation"—not in the linguistic, but in the conceptual sense?
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