Translation Studies

Interestingly, I was just having a conversation along the lines of translations and the “correctness” or “incorrectness” that often accompanies various translated texts. In the course of the conversation, a colleague mentioned that the reader would never know the actual content of the text, unless he/she knew the originating language. I, on the other hand, disagreed with this line of thinking because translators are trained in this educational field and apply their knowledge toward precise interpretation and translation methods. However, now that I have read through Lawrence Venuti’s essay “Translation Studies” my beliefs have been altered - to some degree. Certainly, there is an exactness to translation, but according to Venuti translation takes on an altogether form or approach that allows for some “alteredness” (if there is such a word.) Venuti talks about “shifts” within the text that appear to in some ways change the text. Well, for example, how many versions of the Bible do we actually have? The numerous translations alter the meanings, in my opinion. Venuti includes an example of how this works on page 297, which I found quite interesting. Sure, Christians will state that the overall message remains the same, but does it really? The example Venuti uses is the difference between the words “kiss” and “handshake” - which to me are entirely different. A kiss in no way resembles a handshake! It would seem that translation studies requires precision in a way that many of us (or maybe it’s just me) are not fully appreciative of. After reading this essay, I found that I wanted to go to a few of some old essays that I had read from Gloria Anzaldua that were written in Spanish and translated into English -- just for to get an idea of whether there had been a “shift” or “assuming” stance within the text. Interesting stuff.