The Wicked History of Translation

Five years of studying translation and transcultural communication equal quite the accumulation of knowledge in this field. This is why I want to share some of the interesting stories, fun facts, anecdotes as well as theories, background information and general translation facts that I know. To understand what translation even is and how it came to be – as well as the extremes it went through – this blog post will take a closer look at the history of translation.

The history of translation

There is a lot of history there. Not quite surprising, but still: there is a lot. Yet, it is hard to find substantial information – simply because the translator is and always has been predominantly invisible. There is translation all around us, but we often do not recognize it as such. From tv shows and books over news to products in a supermarket. We usually do not know the translator who is responsible for them, either.

This leads to one of the difficulties in translation history: There is no comprehensive and exhaustive history because translation has been as omnipresent as it has been invisible. In the case of interpreting, believed to be almost as old as humanity itself, this issue is even more prevalent. The history of any given topic is important though, not just to see and understand past lessons learned, but also to recognize how past occurrences impact the present. In the case of translation, it is a cultural phenomenon that is lacking any characteristics. To be more specific, the characteristics generally attributed to translation are those of a society at a given time. This makes translation so difficult and cultural competences so important.

Thus, translation techniques changed according to the society in which they were practiced. In this blog post, the focus will be on what is the first written documentation of translation we have as of today. Time to travel to ancient Mesopotamia.

Ancient Mesopotamia as the first pit-stop in the history of translation

Ancient Mesopotamia – that is, the land between Iraq and Iran –  is generally viewed as the origin of written translation, or at the very least the starting point of its documented history. It is there that the oldest translation documents were found, dating back over 5000 years ago.

 

For this reason the focus of this blog post will be on one particular story – the story of  .

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If you want further readings on the the topic, check out the bibliography of this post:

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