The ATA Chronicle - July/August 2024 - 23

Therefore, one doesn't need
to be enlightened to translate
scripture paraphrastically,
any more than a technical
writer needs to have traveled
into space (speaking of
going to the moon) to
write manuals for use in
astronautic travel.
As long as the translator
has sufficient understanding
of the subject to reconvey the
meaning of the original text
in such a way that it can be
understood approximately
as it would have been for
readers (or hearers) of the
original, little is lost-at least
no more than in any other
decent translation.
Further, this is much
better than providing the
reader with a word salad
that only speakers of the
original language will be able
to understand. After all, as
translators, we're translating
for the layman who can't read
the original, not the pedantic
literalist who can, and wants,
to see it reskinned.
Scripture and Sutras:
According to translation
theorist and historian
Lawrence Venuti, early
Western Christian
translators agreed, and with
a religious fervor:
" Word-for-word
renderings came to be
stigmatized not simply
because they contained
infelicities, given the
lexical and syntactical
differences between
languages, but because
they interfered with the
transmission of God. " 5
And their Eastern
counterparts translating the
Buddhist sutras into Chinese
did more or less the same,
even while preaching fidelity,
www.ata-chronicle.online
such as in the case of the
prolific Chinese translator
Zhi Qian:
" Although Zhi Qian seems
to accept the dictum that
translations should adhere
closely to the scriptural
text and avoid literary
ornament, his work was
actually paraphrastic. " 6
Literalism Is for Grammarians:
Having said this, there is one
exception to keep in mind.
Extremely literal translation
can have its uses, for
example, in back-translation
undertaken for a text that has
been lost to try to recreate
it from foreign translations.
Generally, though, it's just
an academic exercise to be
left to what Cicero called
the " grammarians. " Venuti
explains:
" In distinguishing his use
of translation from that
of a grammarian, Cicero
suggests that grammatical
translation was not useful
to the orator.... Orators
argued legal cases and
occupied government
office; grammarians
worked in a strictly
academic capacity. " 7
The Mortality of Words
The bottom line is that,
like any other utterance,
religious texts serve a
practical purpose: to convey
a message. Figures such as
Jesus and Buddha presumably
didn't purposefully speak in
riddles to appreciate their
own cleverness. They spoke in
the ways they thought would
make them understood.
Sometimes this was done
through plain instruction,
such as precepts or
commandments like " Don't
American Translators Association 23
lie or steal. " At other times
the message was conveyed
through parables meant to
teach followers a lesson in
a way that's indirect but
penetrating. Most often,
it was done with heavy
reference to a context and
culture from which we're now
removed, both geographically
and temporally.
And so, the question is:
What use is plain instruction
if we have to become
mental contortionists to
try to resolve unfamiliar
ancient or foreign-language
conventions just to figure
out that this prophet or that
philosopher thought lying
was mostly detrimental
or that compassion would
bring us more fulfillment
than possession?
What use is a parable if the
message and memorability of
NOTES
1
2
the story is obscured by the
translator's desire to tell it
as though to someone who,
in most cases, doesn't exist;
someone who speaks both
the target language now and
also has the lived experience
of a speaker of the original
language then? What use
are any words at all when
the context that gives them
meaning is stripped away so
that they might as well just
be empty sounds?
Let's not make babblers of
the sages. Prophets don't live
forever and neither do the
language conventions they
observe. Words aren't
immortal, but maybe they do
have an immortal soul. So,
appreciate the literal
meanings of original words
for the ideas they convey.
Then let them die, lest their
worldly bodies hamper the
latter's eternal spirits.
" Wang Yangming, " Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(Department of Philosophy, Stanford University, 2019).
Baker, Mona. In Other Words: A Coursebook on Translation
(Routledge, 2018), 125.
3
Hubbell, H. M. (translator). Cicero: On Invention. The Best
Kind of Orator. Topics. Rhetorical Treatises. Loeb Classical
Library 386 (Harvard University Press, 1949), 365.
4 Ibid., 365.
5
6 Ibid., 17.
7 Ibid., 14.
Eric R. Stone is a freelance translator and
journalist living in Taiwan. He has over a
decade of translation experience and specializes
in archaic Chinese Buddhist, Taoist, and
philosophical texts, as well as modern Chinese
commentaries. He also writes about Taiwan, cross-strait
politics, and human rights as a journalist. He has a BA from
the University of Illinois. ericrstone@pm.me
Venuti, Lawrence. The Translation Studies Reader (New York,
Routledge, 2000), 16.

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/wang-yangming/ https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/wang-yangming/ https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/wang-yangming/ https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/wang-yangming/ https://www.routledge.com/In-Other-Words-A-Coursebook-on-Translation/Baker/p/book/9781138666887?source=shoppingads&locale=en-USD&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAACWuhHWh7F8xcaI-aox-yfKvsK9uE&gclid=CjwKCAjwko21BhAPEiwAwfaQCEYlmgMfGcsxgXfMOpRKKG-VgwBpmzXLL6WEE747gmO1GBq2wMIZKhoCXdAQAvD_BwE https://www.routledge.com/In-Other-Words-A-Coursebook-on-Translation/Baker/p/book/9781138666887?source=shoppingads&locale=en-USD&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAACWuhHWh7F8xcaI-aox-yfKvsK9uE&gclid=CjwKCAjwko21BhAPEiwAwfaQCEYlmgMfGcsxgXfMOpRKKG-VgwBpmzXLL6WEE747gmO1GBq2wMIZKhoCXdAQAvD_BwE https://www.routledge.com/In-Other-Words-A-Coursebook-on-Translation/Baker/p/book/9781138666887?source=shoppingads&locale=en-USD&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAACWuhHWh7F8xcaI-aox-yfKvsK9uE&gclid=CjwKCAjwko21BhAPEiwAwfaQCEYlmgMfGcsxgXfMOpRKKG-VgwBpmzXLL6WEE747gmO1GBq2wMIZKhoCXdAQAvD_BwE https://www.routledge.com/In-Other-Words-A-Coursebook-on-Translation/Baker/p/book/9781138666887?source=shoppingads&locale=en-USD&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAACWuhHWh7F8xcaI-aox-yfKvsK9uE&gclid=CjwKCAjwko21BhAPEiwAwfaQCEYlmgMfGcsxgXfMOpRKKG-VgwBpmzXLL6WEE747gmO1GBq2wMIZKhoCXdAQAvD_BwE https://www.amazon.com/Cicero-Invention-Rhetorical-Treatises-Classical/dp/B00DS93SKE https://www.amazon.com/Cicero-Invention-Rhetorical-Treatises-Classical/dp/B00DS93SKE https://www.amazon.com/Cicero-Invention-Rhetorical-Treatises-Classical/dp/B00DS93SKE https://www.amazon.com/Cicero-Invention-Rhetorical-Treatises-Classical/dp/B00DS93SKE https://www.amazon.com/Cicero-Invention-Rhetorical-Treatises-Classical/dp/B00DS93SKE https://www.amazon.com/Cicero-Invention-Rhetorical-Treatises-Classical/dp/B00DS93SKE https://www.routledge.com/The-Translation-Studies-Reader/Venuti-Venuti/p/book/9780367235970 https://www.routledge.com/The-Translation-Studies-Reader/Venuti-Venuti/p/book/9780367235970 https://www.routledge.com/The-Translation-Studies-Reader/Venuti-Venuti/p/book/9780367235970 https://www.routledge.com/The-Translation-Studies-Reader/Venuti-Venuti/p/book/9780367235970 https://www.routledge.com/The-Translation-Studies-Reader/Venuti-Venuti/p/book/9780367235970 https://www.routledge.com/The-Translation-Studies-Reader/Venuti-Venuti/p/book/9780367235970 http://www.ata-chronicle.online

The ATA Chronicle - July/August 2024

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