...In history, no war could ever affect the faith of a nation more lasting than translation did: Saint Jerome ended the Jewish world order, literally, by translating the Hebrew Bible into Latin. And when Martin Luther, the German priest, translated the Latin Bible into German, the last reminiscences of the Roman Empire vaporized. Institutionalized translation As a rule, any nation that aims high in world history first translates all major works of its competitors into its own vernacular. This naturally creates a creepy “I Know You” effect, and indeed cruel theories have been proposed (by Georg Hegel, Max Weber etc.) about how only non-members can ever fully grasp a foreign culture or religion [which to this day only seems to work for Western scholars, apparently]. Another side-effect of institutionalized translation was Europe’s dominance over Eastern thought, as European categories were now applied to Asia – one shoe to fit them all! Hence the common notion that India can’t think (for itself) and that China is a place of zero originality... tinyurl/o6su9wf
Posted on: Thu, 11 Jul 2013 11:10:47 +0000
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