Translation during the period of Classicism and Enlightenment

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TRANSLATION DURING THE RENAISSANCE PERIOD

The Renaissance period which began in the 14^th century in Italy was marked by great discoveries and inventions, the most significant of which for cultural development was the invention of the moving printing press by the German J.Gutenberg in the middle of the 15^th century (1435). Its consequence was the appearance of cheaper printed books and a quick growth of the number of readers in West European countries. This demand of books for reading in its turn called forth an increase in translation activity due to which there was soon noticed an ever increasing number of fiction translations. Alongside of this, the birth and strengthening of national European states raised the status of national languages and reduced the role of Latin. Hence, translations began to be performed not only from classic languages but also from and into new European languages. These real changes resulted in a wider use of faithful as well as free translations which started almost at one and the same time in France, Germany and England. During this period Albrecht von Eyb (translator of T.PIautus' works), Heinrich Steinhowel (translator of Aesop's and Boccaccio's works), were active in Germany. The new free/unrestricted freedom of translation in France was also practised by the noted poet and translator of Ovid's poems Joachim du Bellay, who in his book Defence et Illustration de la Langue Frangaise (1549) also included some theoretical chapters on translation. Another outstanding translator, publisher and scientist in France was Etienne Dolet. He was put to the stake, however, in 1546 for his free sense-to-sense (and not word-for-word) translation of Socrates' utterances in one of the dialogues with the philosopher Plato. E.Dolet was also the author of the treatise «De la maniere de bien traduire d'une lange en I'altre», 1540 (On How to Translate Well from One Language into the Other). Among other French translators who would widely practise the unrestricted free­dom of translation were also Etienne de Laigle, Claude Fontaine, Amyot, and others.

Certainly the greatest achievement of the Renaissance period in the realistic approach to conveying the source language works was the translation of the Bible into several West European national languages. The first to appear was the German Bible in Martin Luther's translation (1522-1534). This translation of the Book of Books was performed by Martin Luther contrary to the general tradition of the

Middle Ages, i.e. not strictly word-for-word, but faithfully sense-to-sense. What was still more extraordinary for those times, was that Martin Luther resorted to an extensive employment in his translation of the Bible of spoken German. Moreover, the principles of translating the Bible in this way were officially defended by Luther himself in his published work (1540) On the Art of Translation (Von derKunst des Dolmetschen). That faithful German translation of the Bible was followed in 1534 by the English highly realistic translation of the Holy Book performed by the theologian William Tyndale (1492? -1536). A year later (in 1535) the French Calvinist Bible came off the press. William Tyndale's version of the Bible was the first ever scientifically grounded and faithful English translation of the Holy Book. That trans­lation served as a basis for the new Authorized Version of the Bible published in 1611. Unfortunately, Tyndale's really faithful sense-to-sense English translation of the Bible met with stiff opposition and a hostile reception on the part of the country's high clergy. William Tyndale's true supporters tried to justify the use of the common Eng­lish speech by the translator (this constituted one of the main points of «deadly» accusations) by referring to Aristotle's counsel which was «to speak and use words as the common people useth». W.Tyndale himself tried to defend his accurate and really faithful translation, but all in vain. In 1536 he was tied to the stake, strangled and burnt in Flanders as a heretic for the same «sin» as his French colleague Etienne Dolet would be ten years later. Hence, the faithful approach to translating (this time of ecclesiastic and philosophic works) introduced by W.Tyndale and E.Dolet and supported by their adherents in England and France was officially condemned and persecuted in late Renaissance period.

Despite the official condemnations and even executions of some outstanding adherents of the idea of sense-to-sense translation of any written matter (including the ecclesiastic and philosophic works), the controversy between the supporters of now three different approaches to translating continued unabated all through the periods of Classicism (17^th - 18^th centuries) and Enlightenment (the 18^th century). These three trends which appeared long before and were

employed during the Middle Ages, have been mentioned already on the preceding pages and are as follows:

1. The ancient «strict and truthful» word-for-word translation of ecclesiastic (the Septuagint) and philosophic works. The basic princi­ples of the trend were considerably undermined by Luther's and Tyndale's translations of the Bible;

2. The unrestricted free translation introduced by Horace and Apuleius, which had established an especially strong position in France and gained many supporters there;

3. The old trend adhering to the Cicero's principle of regular sense-to-sense translation without the unrestricted reductions or additions to the texts/works in their final translated versions.

The supporters of the latter approach, whose voices began to be heard more and more loudly in the 17^lh and 18^th centuries in various West European countries, strongly condemned any deliberate lowering of the artistic level or changing of the structure of the original belles-lettres works. They demanded in J.W.Draper's words that «Celtic literature be as Celtic as possible and Hottentot literature as Hottentot in order that the thrill of novelty might be maintained»¹. The English critic meant by these words that the translator should faithfully convey not only the content but also the artistic merits of the source language works. John Dryden (1630-1700), another outstanding English author and literary critic, tried to reconcile these two historically opposite trends and sought a middle course between the «very free», as he called the second trend, and the «very close» (i.e. word-for-word) approach. He demanded from translators «faithfulness to the spirit of the original» which became a regular motto in the period of Classicism and Enlightenment, though far from all translators unanimously supported this idea. Thus, the German translator and literary critic G.Ventzky put forward the idea (and vigorously supported it) that the translated belles-lettres works «should seem to readers to be born, not made citizens».² This was not so much a demand for a highly artistic rendition, in the true sense of present-day understanding of faithful artistic translation, than a slightly camouflaged principle of adjustment of the source language works to current readers by way of free, unrestricted sense-to-sense rendering. And he realized this postulate in his translation practice.

' See: Draper J.W.The Theory of Translation in the 18^,h Century. In: Neophilologus, VI.- DenHaag, 1921,p.254.

² See: Franzel J.W.Geschichte des Ubersetzens im 18 Jahrhundert. - Leipzig, 1914, p.39.

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