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Fidus Interpres: The Theory and Practice of Translation in Classical Antiquity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 May 2015

Bernhard Kytzler
Bernhard Kytzler*
Affiliation:
Freie Universität Berlin
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Extract

‘One of the unwritten chapters in the literary history of antiquity is that providing a comprehensive account of (ancient) translation.’ This statement still holds true after 20 years, and so this study will inevitably lack completeness; all it can aim at is to try to give an outline of what one might consider to be the most important issues concerning our theme.

To underline the vast quantity of material concerning our topic we might refer to a list entitled ‘Greek works translated into Latin before 1350’. This list is restricted to philosophical works only, omitting all other fields such as medicine, law, mathematics, theology, and liturgy. Nevertheless even this limited list gives the names of no less than 119 authors whose philosophical works in Greek were translated into Latin; the space needed for Aristotle alone runs to more than five pages. Thus it is easy to estimate what an enormous number of Latin translations there were, and what countless efforts must have been taken over more than one and a half millennia for this kind of literary work. One may add that there is a very helpful collection of some 90 testimonia covering the time of St. Augustine, in the book of Heinrich Marti, Übersetzer der Augustin-Zeit. There is also the basic study of Jiȓi Levỳ, which deals with modern theory, and outlines all the problems and all the facts of the art of translation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Antichthon , Volume 23 , 1989 , pp. 42 - 50
Copyright
Copyright © Australasian Society for Classical Studies 1989

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References

1 Speyer, W. ‘Angebliche Übersetzungen des heidnischen und christlichen Altertums‘, in: Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum 11/12 (1968/69) 26 sqq.Google Scholar “Zu den bisher noch nicht geschriebenen Kapiteln der Literaturgeschichte der alten Völker zählt eine zusammenfassende Darstellung der Übersetzung.” However, there is Richter’s, H.E. ‘Übersetzen und Übersetzungen in der römischen Literatur’, Diss. Erlangen 1938.Google Scholar

2 Muckel, J.T.Mediaeval Studies 4 (1942) 33–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Marti, H.#x00DC;bersetzer der Augustin-Zeit (München 1974).Google Scholar

4 Jiȓi, Levý, Umění překladu (Prague 1963)Google Scholar = Die literarisehe #x00DC;bersetzung. Theorie einer Kunstgattung (Frankfurt/Bonn 1969).

5 See Richter(n.l), 7–16.

6 See Pépin, J. ‘L’herméneutique ancienne, ‘Poétique 21 (1975) 291–300.Google Scholar

7 Quintilian 10.5.2.

8 Pliny, , Epist 7.9. 1–2.Google Scholar

9 Homer, Odyssey, translated by Murray, A.T. (1919).Google Scholar

10 Büchner, K.Symbolae Osloenses 54 (1979) 37–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

non equidem insector delandave carmina Livi
esse reor, memini quae plagosum mihi parvo
Orbilium dictare: sed emendata videri
pulchraque et exactis minimum distantia miror.
inter quae verbum emicuit si forte decorum,
si versus paullo concinnior unus et alter,
iniuste totum duck venditque poema.
Horace, Epist. II. 1. 69–75

Translated by H. Rushton Fairclough (Loeb Classical Library)

publica materies privati iuris ent, si
non circa vilem patulumque moraberis orbem,
nee verbum verbo curabis reddere fidus
interpres, nec desilies imitator in artum,
unde pedem proferre pudor vetet aut opens lex.
Horace, Ars poetica, 131–135

Translated by H. Rushton Fairclough (Loeb Classical Library)

13 vereor ne subierim fidi interpretis culpam, cum verbum verbo expressum comparatumque reddiderim. Boethius, Translatio Isagoges Porphyrii 1,1

14 valde pertimesco, ne forte culpam fidi interpretis incurram. Johannes Scotus, Translatio libri De Caelesti Hierarchia quem scripsit Dionysius Areopagita (M.PL 122. 1032)

15 Obgleich die französische Ausgabe [von Herrn Roy übersetzt, dem Übersetzer Feuerbachs] von einem grossen Kenner beider Sprachen angefertigt ist, so hat er doch oft zu wörtlich übersetzt Ich bin daher gezwungen, ganze passages umzuschreiben, um sie dem französischen Publikum mundgerecht zu machen.’ Marx/Engels, Werke 33, 477.

16 See n.l5.

17 converti enim ex Atticis duorum eloquentissimorum nobilissimas orationes inter seque contrarias, Aeschini et Demosthenis; nee converti ut interpres, sed ut orator, sententiis isdem et earum formis tamquam figuris, verbis ad nostram consuetudinem aptis; in quibus non verbum pro verbo necesse habui reddere, sed genus omne verborum vimque servavi; non enim ea me adnumerare lectori putavi oportere, sed tamquam appendere. Cicero, , De optimo genere oratorum, 14;Google Scholar translated by H.M. Hubbell (Loeb Classical Library)

18 See Puelma, M. ‘Ciceroals Platon-Übersetzer’, Museum Helveticum 37(1980) 137–178;Google Scholar cf. also De finibus 1.4–8.

19 delectat Ennius Pacuvius Accius multique alii, qui non verba, sed vim Graecorum expresserunt poetarum. Cicero, Academica 1.10; translated by H. Rackham (Loeb Classical Library)

20 nec tamen exprimi verbum e verbo necesse erit, ut interpretes indiserti solent. Cicero, De finibus 3.15; translated by H. Rackham (see n.19)

21 Larbaud, Valéry, Sous l’invocation de Saint Jerôme (Paris 1948),Google Scholar Premiere partie, Le patron des traducteurs.

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23 Hieronymus, Liber de optimo genere interpretandi. Ein Kommentar, G.J.M. Bartelink (Leiden 1980).

24 non verbum de verbo sed sensum exprimere de sensu.

25 absque scripturis Sanctis, ubi et verborum ordo mysterium est.

26 de Labriolle, P. ‘La songe de Cicéron’, in Miscellanea Geronimiana (Roma 1920 227–235.Google Scholar

27 Ciceronianus es non Christianus (Epist. 22–30).

28 Op. cit (n.3) 76.

29 Nunc verbum, nunc sensus, nunc simul utramque.

30 et mutare quippiam de Graeco non est vertentis, sed evertentis, et eadem ad verbum exprimere nequaquam eius, qui servare velit eloquii venustatem. Hieronymus, Epistula 84 sub fine.

31 duplex in opere meo utilitas fuit, dum et haereticus auctor proditur et non verus interpres arguitur … putatis me interpretem? proditor fui; prodidi haereticum, ut ecclesiam ab haeresi vindicarem. Hieronymus, , Contra Rufinum 117.Google Scholar

32 Sunt enim quaedam verba certarum linguarum quae in usum alterius linguae per interpretationem transire non possint. Et hoc maxime interiectionibus accidit, quae verba motum animi significant potius quam sententiae conceptae ullam particulam. Nam et haec duo talia esse perhibentur; dicunt enim ‘racha’ indignantis esse vocem, ‘osanna’ laetantis. Augustinus, De doctrina Christiana 2.11.16.

33 Cf. Lucretius, Rer. Nat. 1.139 and 832;Google Scholar cf. also Sen. tranquill. 2.3, Gell. N.A. 11.16, 17.20.

34 Poncelet, R., Ciceron traducteur de Platon (Paris 1957) 366.Google Scholar

35 Augustinus, De civitate Dei 18.23.

36 For the history of translation as well as for present problems see in recent years: Canadian Review of Comparative Literature, Special Issue: Translation (Spring 1980);

Real Academia Española, Traducción y Enriquecimiento de la Lengua del Traductor (Madrid 1985);

Wilss, W. (ed.), Übersetzungswissenschaft (Darmstadt 1982);Google Scholar

Köller, W.Einführung in die Übersetzungswissenschaft (Stuttgart 1979);Google Scholar

Steiner, G.After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation (Oxford 1975).Google Scholar