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    CHAPTER 2 Translation theory before the twentieth century Key concepts The ‘word-for-word’ (literal? vs, sense-for-sense’ (‘free’) debate, 11 The importance of the translation of sacred texts in China and Europe. 1 The vitalization of the vernacular: Luthor and the German Bible. Koy notions of ‘idolity’, ‘spirit’ and truth’ ‘The influence of Dryden and the: Imitation. Attompts at a mor Tytler. = Schleiermacher: a sep: foreign. of metaphrase, paraphrase, systematic prest ptive approach from Dolet and te language of translation and respect for the Key texts Baker, M. (ed) (1998/2008) The Routledge Encyclopedia of Ta ion Stuoies, Prt ‘History and Traditions, London and New York: Routledge Bassnett, S. (1980, revised edition 2002) Translation Studies, London and New York Routledge, Chapter 2 ‘Cheung, M. (ed) (2006) An Anthology of Chinese Discourse on Tansation: From Earliest Times to the Buddhist Project Manchester: St Jerome. Dryden, J. (1680/1992) ‘Metaphrase, paraphrase and imitation, in R. Schulte and (4s) (1982), pp. 17-31, also extracted in L. Venuti (ed) (2004), pp. 38-42. Gutas, D. (1998) Greek Thought’ Arabic Culture: The Graeco-Arabie Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early Abbasid society (2nd-dth/Bth-10th centu Landon and New York: St Jerome Robinson, D, (1997b) Western Transition Theoyy from Herodotus fo Nietesche Manchester St Jerome, For extracts from Cicero, St Jerome, Dole, Brun, Luther and Wiles Schl rmacher, F. (1813/2004) ‘On the (2004), pp. 43-63, erent methods of translating, in L. Veruti PRE-TWENTIETH-CENTURY TRANSLATION THEORY 2,0 INTRODUCTION ‘The aim of this chapter isnot to atlempt a comprenensive history of translation of tvans~ lators through the ages; this would be beyond the scope of any book. Instead, the main ‘focus is the central recurring theme of wore-for-word' and ‘sense-for-sense’ translation, a debate that has dominated much of translation theory in what Newmark (1981: 4) calls the 'prevlinguistics period of translation’ Itis a theme which Susan Bassnett, in ‘The history of translation theory’ section of her Translation Stuales, sees as ‘emerging again and again with diferent degrees of emphasis in accordance with differing concepls of language and communication’ (2009: 60), In ths chapter, we focus on a select few of the influential and ready available writings from the history of translation based on the criterion of the influence they have exerted on the history of translation thecry and reseaich, Of course, this is restricted selection and the Ist of further reading will note some ofthe others that have a justifiable claim for inclusion, There has also historcally been a very strong tendency to ‘concentrate on westem European writing on translation, starting with the Roman tradition; the rich tradtions of non-western cultures have until recently been neglected, although, since the publication of the first edition ofthis book, there has been an ever-growing Ist of publications in Englh addressing the wider geographic framework. Building on the basis of the eatlier Translators Through History (Delisle and Woodsworth 1995) and Baker's The Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Stuales (1998/2008), there have appeaved volumes on writings on Asian traditions (Hung and Wakabayashi 2005), on China speciic~ ally (Chan 2004, Cheung 2008), and on a range of non-western thought on translation (Hermans 2006a, 2006t). This chapter also includes some of these newer findings, anc readers are again encouraged lo consider the issues as they relate to the hislory ang ‘translation tracitions oftheir own counties and languages. 2.1 'WORD-FOR-WORD' OR 'SENSE-FOR-SENSE'? Up until the second hal of the twentieth century, wastern translation thecty seemed locked in what George Steiner (1998: 319) calls a sterie! debate over the triad’ of literal, ‘free! anc ‘faithful ansiation, The distinction between word-for-word! (ie, itera) and ‘sense-for-sense' (i. ree’) translation goes back to Cicero (list eentuty ace) ang ‘St Jerome (late fourth century C=) and forms the basis of key writings on translation in centuries nearer to our own, Cicero cullined his approach to translation in De optimo genere oratorum (46 3c¢/ 1960 ce), introducing his own translation of the speeches of the Attic orators Aeschines and Demosthenes: ‘And | did not translate them as an interpreter, but as an orator, keeping the same ideas and forrns, or as one might say, the ‘figures’ of thought but in language which ‘conforms le cur usage, And in so doing, did not hold it necessayy to render word for ‘word, but | preserved the general syle and force of the language.’ (Cicero 46 ace/1960 c=: 364) The ‘interpreter’ of the frst line is the Iteral (wordkfor-word) translator, while the ‘orator tried to produce a speech that moved the isteners. In Roman times, word-for-word! 49 20 INTRODUCING TRANSLATION STUDIES translation was exactly what said: the replacement of each individual word of the ST (invariably Greek) with its closest grammatical equivalent in Latin, Tis was because the Romans would read the TTs side by side with the Greek STs, The cisparagoment of word-for-word translation by Cicero, and indeed by Horace, who, in a short but famous passage from his Ars Poetica (20 oct?) underlines the goal of prodicing an aesthetically leasing and creative text in the TL, had great influence on the succeeding centuries. Thus, St Jerome, the mast famous of all vanslators, cites the authoriy of Cicero's approach to justify his own Latin revision and translation of the (Christian Bible, commissioned by Damasus, bishop of Rome. In a work that was to become known as the Latin Vulgate, Jerome revised and corrected earlier Lalin translations of the New Testament and for the Old Testament, decided to return to the Hebrew, a decision that ‘was controversial to those who maintained the divine inspiration of the Greek Septuagint (Rebenich 2002: 3-4). His translation strategy is formulated in De optime genere inter- pretandi a letter addressed to his frend, the senator Pammachius, in 396 cf." In perhaps the most famous statement ever an the translation arocess, St Jerome, defending himselt against citcisms of incorrect translation, describes his stvategy in the following terms Now Inet enly admit bul realy announce that in translating from the Greek except of ‘course in the case of the Holy Scripture, where even the syntax contains a mystery — I render net word-for-word, out sense-for-senses* {St Jerome 395 ce/1997: 25) ‘Although some scholars (eg, Lambert 1991: 7) argue that these terms have been rrisinterpreted Jerome's staterent is now usually taken to refer to what came lo be known as ‘literal’ (word-for-word) and “free! (sense-for-sense) translation. Jerome ‘ejected the word-for-word aporcach because, by following so closely the form af the ST, ¢ produced an absurd translation, cloaking he sense of the riginal The sense-for-sense approach, on the other hand, allowed the sense or content of the ST to be translated. In these poles can be seen the origin of both the Iiteral vs. ‘ree’ and ‘orm vs. content debate that has continued until modern times. To illustrate the concept of the TL taking over the sense of the ST, Jerome uses the military image ofthe original text being marched into the TL ke a prisoner by its conqueror (Robinson 1997b: 26). interestingly, however, as part of nis defence St Jerome stresses the special'mystery of bath the meaning and syntax of the Bible, for to be seen tobe altering the sense was lable to bring a charge of heresy ‘St Jerome's statement is usually taken to be the clearest expression of the ‘tera ‘and free’ poles in translation, but the same type of concern seems to have accurred in other "ich and ancient translation traditions such as in China and the Arab world, For instance, Hung and Pollard use similar terms when ciscussing the history of Chinese transtation of Buddhist sutras from Sanskrit (see Box 2.1). The vocabulary ofthis description (such as the ‘loss on ‘yyt) shaws the infuence of modern western translation terminology, the general thrust of the argument being similar to the Cicero/St Jerome poles described above. Aesthetic and slylstic considerations are again noted, and there appear to be the frst steps towards a rusimentary differentiation of text types, with nonviterary STs being treated differently from iterary TTs. Some of the issues, such as transliteration, relate most cleally te the problem of translation of foreign elements and names into @ nor-phonetic language (Chinese). PRE-TWENTIETH-CENTURY TRANSLATION THEORY Box 2.1 Sutra translation provided a fertile ground forthe practice and discussion of different translation approcnes. Generally speaking, translations produced inthe fist prase [easter Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms Period (c. 148-268) were word-for- word renderings adhering closely to source-language syntax. This was probably due not only to the lack of biingual ability amongst tne [rarsation] forum participants, but also to belet that the sacred words of the enlightened should not be tampered with In additon to contorted targel-language syntax ransiteration was used very liberal, with the esul thatthe translations were fairly incomprehensible to anyone without a theological grounding, The second phase [vin Dynasty and tne Northern and Souther Dynasties (c, 265-589)] saw an obvious swing lowards whal many contemporary Chinese scholars call yyi (ee translation, for lack of a better term). Syntactic inversions were smoothed out according to target language usage, and the drats, \were polished to give them a high Iterary quality Kumarajva was credited asa piones of this approach. In extreme cases the polishing mignt nave gone too fay, and there are extant discussions of how this affected the original message, During the third pase [Sui Dynasty, Tang Dynasty and Northern Song Dynasty (¢. 889-1100), the approach to translation was to a great extent dominated by Xuan Zang, whe had an excellent command of both Sanskrit and Chinese, and who advocated that attention, shoulé be paid tothe style ofthe original text literary palshing was net to be applied to simple and plan source texts. He also set down rules governing the use of rans- Iteration, and these were adoptes by many of his successors (Hung and Pollard 1997-368) ‘Translation choices were expounded in the prefaces to these texts, perhaps the most inftuental being by the religious leader Dao'an, who directed an extensive translation ‘pro gramme’ of the sutras in the fourth century ce, These pre‘aces considered ‘he dilemma \whien ever faced Buadhist translators: whether to make a tree, polsned and shortened version adapted to the taste of the Chinese public, or a faithful itera, repetitious anc therefore unreadable translation (Zurcher 2007: 208), Interestingly as Zurcher discusses, there was an atlemal by Dao'an to regulate the strategy to be emaloyed in vanslaling new texts. In the preface to the translation of the Praiigpavamita (282 cx), Dacian Isis five ‘elements where deviation was acceptable (fexiilty of Sanskrt syntax. enhancement of erariness of the ST, omission of repetition in argumentation, in inlroductions and of ‘summaries) and three factors that necessitated special care (the directing of he message to a new audience, the sanctty of the ST words and the special status of the STs themselves as the cumulative work of so many followers). These points were to influence the work of the great Kuchan translator and commentator Kurarajva and those who ‘followed him untlthe sixth century c: Over racent years, there has been increased interest from the west in Chinese and other writing on translation and this has h ghighted some important theoretical points, With specific reference ta sutra transmission from the first to eighth centuries ce, Eva Hung (2005: 845) notes the probleratization even of concepts such as ‘orginal text and ‘source language, since these teachings were originally recited orally, leading to many a IWTRODUCING TRANSLATION STUDIES variant STs, and there may have been ‘halla dozen oF more! Central Asian source languages Involved before Sanskrit achieved its dominant positon. In many cases the Sanskit version has been lost but the Chinese has survived, which of course means both that there is no longer any way of checking against any supposed ST and also that the Chinese for rary has ‘become! the source, Usually alse, the TTs were a collaborative effort, the draft translation of the spoken source being produced orally by a bilingual and written down by assistants before revision; explanations adced by the Master also sometimes found their \way into the TTs (Zurcher 2007: 31), Chan Leo Takchung (2001: 199-204) discusses the problems of English equivalents for Chinese terms such as yi, which he claims has ‘been used to0 freely and in really most closely matches sense-for-sense translation or ‘even semantic correspondence (see Chapter 3); the opposite of yy is zhiyh, which has ‘been translated as ‘straightforwara' or ‘cect translation, closely corresponding tothe ST in the interests of athfulness, The literal and ‘fee! poles surface once again inthe rich translation tration of the ‘Arab worls, which created the great centre of translation in Baghdad, There was intense translation activity in the ‘Abbasid peried (750-1250), centred on the translation Into Arabic of Greek scientific and philosophical material, often with Syriac as an intermediary language (Delisle and Woodsworth 1995: 112), Baker (1998: 320-1) followng Rosential (1985/94), describes the two translation methods thal were adopted during that period: ‘The fist [metnod] associated mith Yuhanra lon al-Batrig an lon Nationa al-Himsi, was highly iteral and consisted of translating each Greek word with an equivalent Avabie wore and, where none existed, borrowing the Greek ward into Arabic, (Baker 1998: 320-1) According to Baker this word-for-word method proved to be unsuccessful and had to be revised using the second, sense-for-sense method: The second method, associated with Ibn Ishaq and alJawahar, consisted of trans~ lating sense-for-sense, creating fluent target texts which conveyed the mearing af the original without cistertng the taiget language, (Baker 1998: 321) Once again, the terminology of this desertion is strongly influenced by the classical western European discourse on translation: yet, this does not negate the applicabiliy in the ‘Arab cuture of the two poles of translation which were ident fed by Cicero and St Jerome. Of course, there ae alse other ways of considering the question, Salarna-Cart (Delisle and Woodsworth 1995: 112-18) concentrates more on the way translation strategies ‘helped establish a new system of thought that was to become the foundation of Araaic~Islamic culture ~ both on the conceptual and terminological levels’ with, ever the years, the Increased use of Arab neologisms rather than Iranslteration, Arab translators also became very creative in supplying instructive anc explanatory commentaries and notes. However Dimitri Gutas, writing from a historical perspective, rejects a simplistic chronological explan- ‘ation for the shifts in translation style in the ‘Abbasids organized translation programme of scientific and philasophical works from ancient Greece and instead emphasizes the social polical and ideological factors involved. He contends (Gutas 1998: 138-50) that it was the demand for translators to work on such @ wealth of texts thal led lo the'r increased PRE-TWENTIETH-CENTURY TRANSLATION THEORY prolessionalzation and improved knowledge of Greek but that the divergences of siyle ‘should be explained not as an evolution but on the basis of the various ‘vanslation com> plexes’ (groupings of translators and patrons) wich operated indegendently on different ‘corpora, such as the translations of the Galenie and Hippocratic works, the translation of philosophical works, the translation of the Aristotelian Organon and the translations of Eucl, each with citferent goals 2,2 MARTIN LUTHER Within western society, issues of free and Iteral translation were for over a thousand yeas after St Jerome bound up with the translation of the Bible and ather religious ang phlosophical texts. Not all writing limited itsell to these constraints, of course, The Italian humanist Leonardo Bruni who translated philosophical works of the Classical authors as well as occupying high ecclesiastical ofce, was partculaly concerned to retain the style of the original author, which he saw as an amalgam of the order and rhythm of the words and the polish and elegance’ ofthe original Robinson 1997b: 59-60), Indeed, Bruni fet that this was the only correct way to translate and, fr him, such stylistic demands could only be mel through the learnedness and Ierariness of the transla‘oy, whe needed to possess ‘excellent knowledge of the original language and considerable literary ability in his own language, ‘As far as the Bible was concerned, however, the preoccupation of the Roman Catholic ‘Church was for the ‘correct! established meaning of the Bible to be protected, Any trans lation diverging from the accepted interpretation was lkelyo be ceemed hereticaland tobe ‘censured or banned. An even worse fale lay in store for some of the translatars. The most famous examples are those of the English theologiar-iranslator Wiliam Tyndale and the French humanist Etienne Dolet, both burnt at the stake, Tyndale, a formidable linguist who was said to have mastered ten languages, including Hebrew, ané whose extraordinary Englsh Bible was Iater used as the basis for the King James Version, was abducted, tried for heresy and executed in the Netherlands in 1636 (Bobrick 2008, Chaster 2), Dolet was condemned by the theological facully of Sersenne in 1546, apparently fer adding, in his translation of one of Plato's dialogues, the phrase rien du fout (nothing at all) in a passage about what existed atter death, The addition led to the charge of blasphemy, the assertion being that Dolet dd not believe in immortal. For such a translation error he was executed, But advances in the study ano knowledge of the Biblical languages and classical scholarship, lypified by Erastnus's edition of the Greek New Testament in 1516 and the ‘general climate of the Reformation and spurred by the new technology of the printing press, led to a revolution in Bible translation practice which ‘darinated sxteenth-century book production’ in Europe (Bobrick 2008: 81). Nonsiteral or non-accepted transialion came to be seen and used as a weapon against the Church, The most notable example is Martin Luther’ crucially influential translation into East Central German of the New Testament (1522) and later the Old Testament (1834). Luther played a pivotal role in the Refermation while, inguistically, his use of a regional yet socially broad dialect went a long way to reinforcing that form of the German language as standard, In response to accusations that he had altered the Holy Seriplures in his vanslations, Luther defended himself in his famous Sendbrief vom Dolmetschen (Circular Letter on Translation) of 1830 (Lutner 24 IWTRODUCING TRANSLATION STUDIES 1830/1968)! One pavticualy notorious erieism levelled at Luther echoos tha of Doe. It centres around Luther's translation of Pauls words in Romans 3:28; Arbtramus hominem iusiicari ex ide absque operibus. Wir halten, caB der Mensch gerecht werde ohne des Gesetzes Werk, allein durch den Glauben” [We hole that man isjustiied without the work ofthe law, only through fat) Luther had been heavily crticzed ay the Church for the addition of te word allen ‘alone/ onl), because there was no equivalent Latin word (eg. sola) in the ST. The charge was that the German implies thatthe individual's belief 's sufficient for a good life, making the work of the law’ (ie, religious law) redundant, Lutner counters by saying that he was translating Ine pura, clear German’? where allen would be useo for emphasis. Luther follows St Jerome in rejecting @ word-for-word translation strategy since it would be unable to convey the same meaning as the ST and would sometimes be incomprehensible. An example he gives is from Matthew 12:34 x abundant cords os loqut The English king James version translates this Heraly as: Outof the abundance of the heat the mouth speaketh, Luther translates this witha common German prover Wes das Her vol ist des geht der mund Uber? This idiom means to speak straight fom the heat, While Luther's teatment ofthe free and itera debate does nol show any rea vance con what St Jerome had written 1,100 years before, his infusion of tre Bible with the language of orcinary people and his consiceration of vanslation in tems focusing on the TL and the TT reader were crcil ype of this is his famous quote extolling the language ofthe people: You must ask the mother ai home, the chieren in the street, the ordinary man in the market [se) and lok at thei mouths, how they speak, and tarsate that way; then they/l understand and see that youre speaking to them in German.” From that time onwards, the language af the ordinary German speaks clear and strong, thanks to Luther’ translation 2.3 FAITHFULNESS, SPIRIT AND TRUTH Flora Amas, in he Early Theories of Translation sees the history o the theory of ranstaton as'by no means a record of easily distinguishable, orderly progressicn’ (Amos 1920/78: 0. Theory was generally unconnected; it amounted to an albeit broad series of prefaces and PRE-TWENTIETH-CENTURY TRANSLATION THEORY ‘comments by practitioners who often ignored, er were ignorant of, mast of whal had been ‘written before, One explanation for this isthe folowing: This lack of consecutiveness in cites 's probably partially accountable for the slowness with which translators atianed the power to put into words, clearly anc unmistakably the'r aims and metnods. (Amos 1920/78:x) For instance, Amos notes (p. x) that early vanslators often differed considerably in the meaning they gave to terms such as faithfulness, ‘accuracy’ and even the word “ranstation’ itsel Such concepts are investigated by Louis Kelly in The True interpreter (1979). Kelly locks in getal atthe histery of western translation theory, starting withthe teachings of the ‘writers of Antquily and tracing the history of what he calls (p, 205) the inextricably tanglec! terms “idelty, ‘spirit and "vuth, The concept of fidelity (r atleast the translator who was Jidlus interpre \e. the “athtul interpreter) had iniily been dismissed as Iteral word-for~ word translation by Horace. Indeed, it was not unl the end of the seventeenth century that ‘idelty really came tobe identfed with faithfulness to the meaning rather than the words of the author. Kelly (1979: 208) describes spirit as similarly having two meanings: the Latin word spirtus denotes creative energy or inspiration, proper to Hteratue, but St Augustine used itto mean the Holy Spr, and his contemporary St Jerome emoloyed itn both senses, For St Augustine spirit and truth (veritas) were intertwined, with truth having the sense of ‘content’ for St Jerome, uth meant the authentic Hebrew text to which he returned in his Vulgate translation, Kelly considers that it was not untl the twelfth century that uth was ‘uly equated wih ‘content, Itis easy to see how, in the translation of sacred texts, where the Word of God! is paramount there has been such an interconnection of fidelity (to both the words and the perceived sense), sprit (the energy of the words and the Holy Spit) and truth (the ‘content), However, by the seventeenth century fidelity had come to be generally regarded fas mare than just fidelty ta words, and spirit lst the religious sense it orginally possessed and was thenceforth used solely n the sense of the ereaive energy ofa tex! or language, 2.4 EARLY ATTEMPTS AT SYSTEMATIC TRANSLATION THEORY: DRYDEN, DOLET AND TYTLER For Amos (1920/73: 127), the England of the seventeenth contury ~ with Denar, Cowley and Dryden - marked an important step forward in translation theory with ‘dellverate, reasoned statements, unmistakable in their purpose and meaning’ At that tine, translation into Englsh was almost exclusively confined to verse renderings of Greek and Latin classics, some af which were extremely free, Cowley, for instance, in hs preface to Pindaric (Odes (11640), attacks poety that's ‘converted faithfully and word for word into French or ltalan prose’ (Cowley 1640, cited in Amas 1920/73: 149). His approach is also to counter the inevitable loss of beauty in translation by using ‘our wit or invention’ to create new beauty In doing this, Cowley admits he has ‘taken, left out and added what | please’ ta the Odes (Ames, p. 150). Cowley even proposes the term imitation fr this very free method of translating (Amos, p. 151), The idea was not, as in the Roman period, that such a free IWTRODUCING TRANSLATION STUDIES ‘method would enable the translater to surpass the original: rather that this was the methed thal permitted the ‘spirit ofthe ST to be best reproduced (Amos, 8, 157) Such a very free aparoach ta translation procuced a reaction, notably from another English poet and translater, John Dryden, whose brief description of the translation process would have enormous impact on subsequent translation theory and practice. In the preface this translation af Ovie's Epistles in 1680, Dryden (1680/1992: 17) reduces all translation to three categories (1) ‘metaphrase’ word by word and line by Ine translation, which correspones to Iteral translation; (2) ‘paraphrase’: ‘vanslation with lattude, where the author is kept in view by the tran lator, so as never to be los’ out his words are not so strictly followed as his sense! this involes changing whole phrases and mote or less corresponds to fathful or sense-for-sense translation; (2) ‘imitation’ “forsaking both words and sense; this corresponds to Comley's very free translation and is more or less adaptation, Dryden criticizes translators such as Ben Jonson, whe adopts metaphrase, as being a ‘verbal copier (Dryden 1680/1992: 18). Such ‘servile literal translation is dismissed with a now famous simile: “Tis much lke dancing on ropes with fettered legs ~ a foolish task? ‘Similarly, Oryden rejects imitation, where the translator uses the ST ‘as a pattern to write {as he supposes that author would have dene, had he Ived in cur age and in our country (p. 19) Imitation, n Dryden's view, allows the translator lo becorre more visible, but does ‘the greatest wrong ... to the memary and reputation of the dead’ (p, 20), Dryden thus oreters paraphrase, ackising that melaphrase and imitalion be avoided. This triadic model proposed by Dryden was to exert considerable influence on later \wrtings on translation, Yet itis also tue that Dryden himself changes his stance, with the dedication in his translation of Vigits Aeneid (1697) showing a shift to a point between paraphrase and itera translation: | thought fit to steer betwisl the two extremes of paraphrase and itera translatio to keep as near my author as could, without lasing all his graces, the most eminent of which are in the beauty of his wards, (Dryden 1697/1992: 26). ‘Tne descriaton of his own translation approach in fact bears resemblance to his definiton of imitation above: 'Imay presume to say... have endeavoured to make Virgil speak such English as he would himself have spoken, if he had been born in England, andi in this, present age’ (Dryden 1697/1992: 26), In general, therefore, Dryden and others wrling on translation at the time are very prescriptive, setting out what has to be done in order for successful translation to take place, However, dessite ts Importance ‘or translation theory, Dryden's wr'ting remains full ff the language of his time: the ‘genius’ of the ST author, the “orce’ and “spirit of the original, the need to ‘perfectly comprehend! the sense of the criginal, and the ‘at! of translation, (Other wilters on translation also began to state their ‘principles’ in a silly preserip~ tive fashion, One ofthe frst had been Evenne Dolel, whose sad fale was noted above, in PRE-TWENTIETH-CENTURY TRANSLATION THEORY his 1540 manuscript La maniére de bien traduire d'une langue en autre (The way of translating well fom one language into another; Dolet 1540/1997), Dolet set out five Principles in order of imaortance as follows:"" (1) The translator must perfeclly understand the sense and raterial of the orignal author, although he [sc] shoule fee! free to clarity cbscurties (2) The translator should have a perfect knowledge of noth SL and TL, so as not to lessen the majesty of the language, (2) The translator shoulé avoid word-for-word renderings. (4) The translator should avoid Latinate and unusual forms. (®) The translator should assemble and laise words eloquently to avoid clumsiness, Hore again, the concer is to reproduce the sense and to avoid word-for-word translation, but the stress on eloquent and natural TL form was rooted in a desire to reinforce the structure and independence of the new vernacular French language, In English, pezhaps the first systematic study of translation is Alexander Fraser Tyller’s ‘Essay on the principles of translation’ (1790), Rather than Dryden's author-oiented descrition write as the original author would have written had he known the target language), Tyler defines a ‘goed translation’ in TL-reader-oriented terms te be: ‘That in which the mest ofthe original work is so completely transfused inte anther language as le be as distinlly apprehended, and as strongly felt by a native of the ‘county to which that language belongs as its by those who speak the language of the original work (ler 1797: 14) ‘And, where Dolet has five ‘principles, Tytler (1797: 16) has three general “nles! ws" oF (1) The translation should give a complete transcript of the ideas of the orginal work, (2) The style and manner of writing should be of the same character with that of the original (8) The translation should have al the ease of the original compaston, ‘Tiler’ first law ties in with Dolet’s first two principles in that itrefers tothe translator having a ‘perfect knowledge’ ofthe original (Iyer 1797: 17), being competent in he subject anc _ghing ‘a faith‘ul transfusion of the sense and meaning’ of the author. Tyle’s secend law, like Dole’sfith principe, deals with the style of the author and involves the translators both identifying the true character (p. 11) ofthis style and having the abilty and ‘correct taste’ to recreate it in the TL The thir law (pp. 199-200) taks of having al the ease of composition’ of the ST. Tyler regards this as the most difficult task and bikers it, in a ‘radtional metaphor, to an artist producing a copy of a painting, Thus, ‘scrupulous imitation’ should be avoided, since itloses the ‘ease and spirit ofthe original. Tyler's solution (p. 203) is for the translator to ‘adopt the very soul of his author: Tytler himself recognizes that the ‘rst two laws represent the two widely different ‘opinions about translation, They can be sean as the poles of faithfulness of content ang faithfulness of form, or even refermulalions of the sense-for-sense and word-for-word diad 27 IWTRODUCING TRANSLATION STUDIES of Cicors and St Jerome. Importantly, however, ust as Dolet had done with his principles, Tiler ranks his three laws in order of comparative importance, Such hierarchical cate

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