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"Truth About Translation" is the free Shareware version
of "Truth About Translation Enhanced."

Both programs are Copyright (c) 1995 and 1996 By Alexander Gross.

The following program is about translating and interpreting
foreign languages. It assumes that this subject may be
somewhat unfamiliar to at least some viewers.

Many people suppose translation is a simple process of
substituting one word for another so that both languages
match up perfectly.

But matters are rarely this simple.

Two languages may in fact say "the same thing" in very
different ways.

In some cases, they may not, strictly speaking, be saying
"the same thing" at all.

This means that translators and interpreters must often
exercise a high degree of personal judgment in their work.

It means that translation is often not so much a science as
an art.

This is why no two translators are ever likely to produce
exactly the same translation of the same written text.

And why no two interpreters, who work with spoken language,
will say precisely the very same words.

Contrary to the expectation of many computer experts,
language does not readily lend itself to predictible
regularity.

This is the chief reason why "machine translation" has so
far proved relatively unsuccessful.

Some believe computers can never handle the kind of language
we use every day.

What follows will show you some of the reasons why this may
be so.

You will see comments about translation spanning the last
2,500, years.

You will find hilarious examples of poor translation by both
man and computer.

And you will encounter some novel ideas about language.

If you enjoy this abridged version, you may
wish to obtain the full program.  You may do so be
reading the files README.1ST or ORDER.DOC.

Truth About Translation

Three Programs
About Translating
And Interpreting

This presentation consists of three parts:

Translation and Translators:
Quotations Through the Ages.

Famous Translation Bloopers
By Man and Computer.

A Semi-Humorous Theory
Of Language and Translation

(duration: about 45 minutes)

The author of these programs is Alex Gross, Adjunct Lecturer
in Translation History, NYU Translation Studies Program.
This abridged version is being made available for non-
commercial purposes free of charge as "Shareware," provided
no attempt is made to alter the program, and all its files
are kept together as a single unit. As is customary with such
Shareware presentations, it is nonetheless protected by
Copyright and cannot be used for any commercial purpose beyond
the terms described in the standard Shareware file VENDINFO.DIZ.

By all means make copies of this free Shareware version
of "Truth About Translation" and give them to your friends
or post them in zipped form on local Bulletin Boards.

The author is a member of the Association of Shareware
Professionals (ASP) and supports their standards.  Be
sure to read the ASP Ombudsman Statement in the file
README.1ST.

NOTICE:
What follows is intended for educational purposes
only. Although many points of view and statements
of opinion are presented, none of these necessarily
represents the views of the author.

TRANSLATION AND TRANSLATORS:

Quotations Through The Ages

From Ancient Sumeria
To Molecular Biology

This section presents quotations by many famous or obscure
authorities on translation over more than two millenia. It
will be seen that many of the same observations and/or
confusions about translation arise throughout this entire
period.

Is it merely coincidental that such opinions re-emerge in
every age, or could this very factor shed light on the very
nature of language and translation?  This question will be
discussed at the beginning of our third section of
Quotations about Translation (1900--1950).

Fully one-half of these quotations do not appear in major
texts on translation history, and only a small fraction
appears in any single treatment. Ironically, many have never
before been translated into English.


Is the following the world's first untranslatable pun?

In Genesis, Eve springs from Adam's "rib." But this is a pun
in the original Sumerian version, where the word "ti" means
both "rib" and "life-giving." When the Sumerian Adam was
ill, he was given a goddess meaning both "Rib-Lady" and
"Life-Giving Lady." Only the meaning "rib" was translatable
into Hebrew.
               --Book of Genesis, ca. 1400 B.C.

Words, like arrows, speak to the wise; but most people need
interpreters.
               --Pindar, ca. 469 B.C.

I did not translate them as an interpreter but as an
orator...not word for word (verbum pro verbo), but I
preserved the general style and force of the language.
               --Marcus Tullius Cicero, 46 B.C.

To translate Greek into Latin our old orators thought to be
a very excellent exercise...As to figures [of speech], by
which language is principally ornamented, we may be under
the necessity of inventing a great number and variety of
them, because the Roman tongue differs greatly from that of
the Greeks.
               --Quintilian, ca. 95 A.D.
               "The Father of Latin Grammar"

At the same time, what they may miss in reading, they cannot
avoid in translating. From this process intelligence and
judgment are acquired.
               --Pliny the Younger, 105 A.D.

Terms when translated do not always preserve the same
meaning; and every nation has certain idioms impossible to
express intelligently to others. You may possibly translate
them, but they no longer preserve the same force.
               --Iamblichus of Chalcis, ca. 330
               Hellenistic Scholar & Mystic

Since my youth, it is not words, but ideas, which I have
translated.
               --Saint Jerome, ca. 404

Translation from one language into another, if it is carried
out word for word, hides the meaning; it is like overly
vigorous weeds that would smother the seed-bed.
               --Evagrius, cited
               by Saint Jerome, ca. 404

The Translator Moses ben Ezra Tells His Tale:

One of the most famous Islamic scholars once asked me to
recite the Ten Commandments in the Arabic tongue.

I understood his intention, which was none other than to
find fault with how it would sound. But I had a reply for
him.

I asked him to recite the opening passage from the Koran for
me in the Ladino of Granada, which he knew quite well. He
started to do so.

But when he tried, his translation was poor, and the words
spoiled the beauty of the passage. He stopped suddenly and
could recite no more.

He then understood the reason for my answer and did not
repeat his request.
               --Moses ben Ezra of Granada, ca. 1120
               (Adapted from Juan Vernet)


You must not sell books of science to Jews or Christians...
because it happens that they translate these scientific
books and attribute them to their own people and to their
bishops, when they are indeed Moslem works.
               --Ibn Abdun, Eleventh Century
               (cited by Vernet & D'Alverny)

We must consider the fact that translators did not have the
words in Latin for translating scientific works, because
they were not first composed in the Latin tongue. For this
reason they employed very many words from other languages.
               --Roger Bacon, ca. 1268

And it's often happened to us that we've searched and asked
for fourteen days, even for three or four weeks, aftera
single word, and in all that time we haven't found it.
               --Martin Luther, 1530

A man is worth as many men as he knows languages.
               --Charles V, ca. 1532

NOTE: The full version of this program not only contains
twice as much material as this one, but a complete
bibliography and scholarly apparatus on all quotations is
also provided.

See the file ORDER.DOC for ordering the full version of this
program. See the file README.1ST for further information
about both programs.

You can also print out the full text of this program,
provided in the file ALLTEXT.ASC, by simply loading it into
your word processor.

You can also run single sections of this program individually.
Each one lasts from 5 to 10 minutes.  See the file README.1ST
for instructions.

Translation and Translators:
Quotations Through the Ages
From Ancient Sumeria
To Molecular Biology
will continue in 5 seconds.



From Translation all science had its offspring.
               --Giordano Bruno
               (quoted by John Florio, 1603)

...translating from one language into another...is like
gazing at a Flemish tapestry with the wrong side out: even
though the figures are visible, they are full of threads
that obscure the view and are not bright and smooth as when
seen from the other side.
               --Miguel de Cervantes, 1615

That servile path thou nobly dost decline Of tracing word by
word, and line by line. These are the labour'd births of
slavish brains, Not the effects of Poetry, but pains...
               --John Denham, 1643
               Poet, Translator, Playwright

If a man should undertake to translate Pindar word for word,
it would be thought that one Mad man had translated
another...
               --Abraham Cowley, 1656

If Virgil must needs speak English, it were fit he should
speak it not only as a man of this Nation but as a man of
this Age.
               --John Denham, 1656

The meaning is like the soul of language, and the words are
merely like its body. Thus, a totally literal translation is
like a body without a soul, because the body is in one
language, and the soul in another.
               --Pierre Coustel, ca. 1679
               Port-Royal Educator

On translating literally:
'Tis much like dancing on ropes with fettered legs: a man
may shun a fall by using caution; but the gracefulness of
motion is not to be expected.
               --John Dryden, 1680

BELINDA: Aye, but you know we must return good for evil.
LADY BRUTE: That may be a mistake in the translation.
               --Sir John Vanbrugh, 1698
               (The Provok'd Wife, I.i.)

My old friend, Mrs. Carter, could make a pudding as well as
translate Epictetus.
               --Samuel Johnson, 1738

...the court lady at Versailles, who said: "What
a pity that accident with the Tower of Babel should have got
languages all confused--otherwise everyone would have always
spoken French."
               --Voltaire, 1767

Not a translation- only taken from the French.
               --Richard Brinsley Sheridan, 1770
               (The Critic, I.i.)

...a translation perfectly close is impossible because time
has sunk the original strict import of a thousand phrases,
and we have no means of recovering it.
               --William Cowper, 1780

There is no species of writing so difficult to be
translated, as that where the character of the style is
florid, and the expression consequently vague, and of
indefinite meaning.
               --Alexander Fraser Tytler, 1791
               Major Translation Theorist

The chief difficulty...will be found in the translation
of idioms, or those turns of expression which do not
belong to universal grammar, but of which every language
has its own that are exclusively proper to it.
               --Alexander Fraser Tytler, 1791

When the original merely hints and is obscure, the
translator has no right to give the text an arbitrary
clarity.
               --Wilhelm von Humboldt, 1816

Every language is an experiment. (Jede Sprache ist ein
Versuch.)
               --Wilhelm von Humboldt, 1820?
               (cited by G. Steiner)

It were as wise to cast a violet into a crucible, that you
might discover the formal principle of its color and odor,
as seek to transfuse from one language into another the
creations of a poet.
               --Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1820

...for say what we may of the inadequacy of translation, yet
the work is and will always be one of the weightiest and
worthiest undertakings in the general concerns of the world.
               --J.W. von Goethe, 1827

Simple as the operation may appear...the task of translating
with perfect exactness the sense of the original is a task
of extreme difficulty.
               --Peter Mark Roget, 1852
               Author of "Roget's Thesaurus"

Throughout the history of civilization, translators have
been the agents for propagating knowledge from nation to
nation, and the value of their labours has been inestimable.
               --Peter Mark Roget, 1852

Translation and Translators:
Quotations Through the Ages
From Ancient Sumeria
To Molecular Biology
will continue in 10 seconds.


You'll see some more quotations in a minute. But perhaps you
have already noticed...

Certain themes and certain ideas about translation keep
coming back through all of history...

People are confused by the whole idea of translation...

First of all, they don't see why translation should really
present any kind of a problem...

AFTER ALL, Reality is the same everywhere...

                        ISN'T IT???

All you have to do is substitute one word for another...

                         RIGHT...?

But of course the problem is that both "Reality"
and the words people use to describe it

                    CAN ACTUALLY CHANGE

from one language to another.

Some people, even including some scientists,
find this idea hard to deal with.

But that's only the first problem some people have
with translation.

As the quotations show, a lot of people also have problems
when the translation doesn't match up perfectly
with the original text.

They feel the translation must be at fault
when this happens.

They criticize a translation
when it is "too literal and clumsy."

But they also criticize a translation
when it is "too free and unfaithful."

They want to have it "just right."

Sometimes it seems as if
they can't make up their minds.

They keep insisting on something that can't exist--
because what is "just right"
for one audience may not be for another.

Sometimes it seems as if these people are simply angry
at language for not always being the same.

Or angry at "reality" for not always finding
the same expressions in all languages.

It could be that what we are looking at here
has more to do with human psychology
than it does with language.

Over and over again through the centuries, people
voice the same problems and confusions.

Instead of calling it a "language problem,"
let's call it a "people problem" instead.

You've heard of "culture shock"--let's call this one
"language shock" or "translation shock"...

Perhaps this will give us a better understanding of what is
really going on.

Perhaps this will give us a better
understanding of what is really going on.

Basically, we have enough
trouble with communication
just in one language...

All day, every day,
people keep having trouble
getting things straight,
even in English.

People keep asking:
     What does it really mean?
     Do we have it right?
     Is this what "they" want?

Imagine what can happen
when two languages
are involved...

And now let's return to our quotations.


In 1899 the American poet Sidney Lanier wrote that any idea,
as idea, can be expressed in English. This notion should
perhaps be contrasted with the next three quotations:

...an idea does not pass from one language to another
without change.
               --Miguel de Unamuno, 1921

...all languages share in a common myopia; none can
articulate the whole truth...Translators are men groping
towards each other in a common mist.
               --George Steiner, 1975

The sum of human wisdom is not contained in any one
language, and no single language is CAPABLE of expressing
all forms and degrees of human comprehension.
               --Ezra Pound, 1934

The only tribute a French translator can pay Shakespeare is
not to translate him.
               --Max Beerbohm, 1899

...translation is sin...meddling with inspiration, blasphemy
against the Holy Ghost.
               --Grant Showerman, 1916
               Historian & Classicist

Every word should be represented somehow in the translation,
except where the omission of a word improves the English and
takes nothing from the meaning.
               --Alexander Souter, 1920
               Lexicographer & Biblical Scholar

A Dane wrote a word sketch. This was translated successively
into Swedish, German, English, French, and then back into
Danish. The final product was unrecognizable.
               --Anonymous, 1927
(an experiment with similar results is described by Vinay
and Darbelnet in "Linguistique Comparée," 1958).

Reading poetry in translation is like kissing a woman
through a handkerchief.
               --Chaim Nachman Bialik, 1928
               Acclaimed Hebrew Poet

Professor Murray has simply interposed between Euripides and
ourselves a barrier more impenetrable than the Greek
language.
               --T. S. Eliot, 1920
               (about Gilbert Murray
               as a translator of Greek drama)

All translation is a kind of illusion... Those translations
are always best in which the illusion is most complete and
the idiom least suggestive of translation.
               --T.F. Higham, 1938
               Classicist and Anthologist

The original is unfaithful to the translation.
               --Jorge Luis Borges, 1943
               (on Henley's translation
               of Beckford's "Vathek")

The translator is ignored; he is seated in the very furthest
place; he lives so to speak only from alms; he accepts
performing the very lowest functions, the most self-effacing
roles.
               --Valéry Larbaud, 1946
               Translator, Author, Critic

Translations (like wives) are seldom strictly faithful if
they are in the least attractive.
               --Roy Campbell, 1949

Our understanding is under the spell of the language which
it utilizes.
               --Leo Weisgerber, 1950
               Linguist and Language Historian

Translation and Translators:
Quotations Through the Ages
From Ancient Sumeria
To Molecular Biology
will continue in 5 seconds.

I wish to underline the need for some new provisional theory
of translation--new in the sense that it should be
diagnostic rather than hortatory, concerned with
actualities. It is not the principles of translation that
need re-adjusting... but rather our ideas about them.
               --John MacFarlane, 1953

People behave as though they were the moulders and masters
of language, while it remains in fact their mistress.
               --Martin Heidegger, 1954

I'd like that translated, if I may.
               --Harold MacMillan, when Khrushchev
               interrupted his speech by pounding
               his shoe at the UN in 1960.

...intelligent comments on translation...tend to be
unavailable or scattered, tucked away in odd corners, and
their arguments diffused.
               --William Arrowsmith and Roger Shattuck, 1964

The art of translation lies less in knowing the other
language than in knowing your own.
               --Ned Rorem, 1967
               Musician, Author

We are immersed in the world of translation or, more
precisely, in a world which is itself a translation of other
worlds, of other systems...
               --Octavio Paz, 1971

Translating is a part of the incessant work that changes the
literary forms of a society. But current ideology and the
teaching of literature have hidden- and still hide--how
important translation is.
               --Henri Meschonnic, 1973
               Poet, Linguist, Critic

True, translation may use the value terms of its own tongue
in its own time; but it cannot force these on a truly alien
text.
               --Josephine Miles, 1974
               Literary Critic

However, despite this rich history, and despite the calibre
of those who have written about the art and theory of
translation, the number of original, significant ideas in
the subject remains very meagre.
               --George Steiner, 1975

The dictionary is, however, only a rough draft.
               Monique Wittig
               & Sande Zeig, 1979

Western Europe owes its civilization to translators. From
the Roman Empire to the Common Market, international
commerce and administration have been made possible by
translation.
               --Louis G. Kelly, 1979

I've noticed that theories about translating are generally
produced by those who've had little practice. One becomes a
bit suspicious about the usefulness of theories when one has
had a great deal of practice in something.
               --Serge Fauchereau, 1980
               Author, Art Critic

Translation is entirely mysterious. Increasingly I have felt
that the art of writing is itselftranslating, or more like
translating than it is like anything else. What is the other
text, the original? I have no answer.
               --Ursula Le Guin, 1983

A translator deals with remnants of the psychic functioning
of two ethnic lines, the accumulated experiences of two
linguistic groups, repeated millions of times, and
encapsulated into bits of memory.
               --Donald L. Philippi, 1988
               Translator of the "Kojiki"

Molecular genetics is such a new and dynamic field that it
provides several challenges for the translator. First, the
subject matter itself is not familiar to a large portion of
the population. Second, it is difficult to keep up with the
new terminology as it is being developed.
               --Brooks Haderlie, 1989

Like other fields, the patent and trademark field has its
own jargon; like other jargons, patentese is highly specific
and, when used correctly, highly valuable.
               --Jan McLin Clayberg, 1989

Whatever the number, this country has many of the finest
translators and interpreters the world has ever seen.

               --Harry Obst, 1994
               U.S. State Department

Translation is not a function of typing speed.
               --Ingrid Gillmeier, 1994

If you wish to order the full version of this program,
read the file ORDER.DOC.  For more information
about both programs, consult the files README.1ST
and TRANTRIP.TXT.

This program has three parts.

This is the end of Part 1.

Part 2 will begin in 10 seconds.


                Famous Translation Bloopers
                    By Man and Computer

The following "translation bloopers" come from a variety of
sources.  Many--though by no means all--were first published
as fillers in a newsletter about translation.

Although such errors do not show the work of translators
in the best light, it is nonetheless fairly clear to everyone
that such outrageous errors must be the work of poor translators,
beginning translators, or simply non-translators out of their depth.

But most important, these excerpts are

                           FUNNY,

sometimes hilariously so.  Many have been reprinted in a variety
of publications over the last two decades.

But those who merely laugh should perhaps think twice: anyone
who fails to seek out qualified translators runs the risk that
their own translated texts could sound like the examples that follow.

NOTE: There are no spelling errors in these examples. Or
rather all spelling is reproduced exactly as it was in the
original texts.


In Belgium the General Motors slogan

                      "Body by Fisher"
turned into

                    "Corpse by Fisher."


"To avoid embarrassment, use Parker Superquink"
        became

                  "To avoid pregnancy..."

A French soft drink and a Japanese coffee creamer failed to
flourish in US markets.

Their names were, respectively,

                   "Pshitt" and "Creap."


From a company promoting Hong Kong and Italian imports:

Hello!
How are you?
Dear; good friend of mine.
Do you want to be successful in the USA?

You must have to open communication with me
and 100% believe me.

You must be going to a world of professionalism
and newfashionably.

You must be able to keeping your patience qualify
potentiality anytime.

You must be able to maketrue
and be careful!
You must know the time is money!

I wish you success!
I wish you powerful!
I wish you good health and happy on everyday!
Thank a million for your patronage my letter!


From a "Visitor's Card" at a Russian hotel:

When leaving Your room do not fail to forget to switch off
the electrical gudgets....


The classic menu at a famous Polish restaurant:

Salad a firm's own make.

Limpid red beet soup with cheesy dumplings in the form of a
finger.

A slice of bovine meat.

Roasted duck let loose.

Beef rashers beaten up in the country people fashion.


All these examples came from poor
or inexperienced or simply NON-translators.

But now let's see if

                   "Machine Translation"

fares any better.

In the most famous example of Machine Translation,

"The Spirit is Willing,
But the Flesh is Weak."

may have become in Russian:

"The Vodka is Good,
But the Meat is Rotten."

Machine Translation advocates
claim this never happened,
though some believe it could have.

The following examples have been
fully confirmed by the author.

Many United Nations documents
can be found in six languages.

The next 9 screens compare English versions of UN texts
with translations from UN Spanish, created by a well-known
computer program.


UN English Original:  ...the preamble to the Organization's
Charter...

MT Text (from Spanish):...the preamble to the Letter of the
Organization...


UN English Original:  ...the peoples of the United Nations
declare...

MT Text (from Spanish): ...the towns of the United Nations
declare...


UN English Original:   ...the civil and political rights...

MT Text (from Spanish): ...the straight civilians and
political...


UN English Original:   ...including:

MT Text (from Spanish): ...In such sensitive, you/he/she/it
are specified the following:


UN English Original: ...freedom from torture or cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;...

MT Text (from Spanish):  Nobody will be subjected to
tortures neither to woe or cruel deals, inhuman or
[degradientes];...


UN English Original:  ...the right to recognition as a
person before the law...

MT Text (from Spanish):  ...a right to the reconnaissance of
their artificial personality...


UN English Original:   ...the right to be presumed innocent
until proved guilty...

MT Text (from Spanish):  ...a right to that I/he/ she/it/you
am presumed their innocence in their guilt is not proven...


UN English Original:    ...the right to rest and leisure;

MT Text (from Spanish):   ...the law to the rest and I to
the enjoy of the free time;


UN English Original:  ...the right to education;

MT Text (from Spanish):  ...the law to the manners;


The lesson here, if any, is this:

Yes, untrained human translators
can make terrible mistakes.

But computer methods are likely
to do it all the time.
Unless humans are willing to help...


"Machine translation"
            CAN
be useful in certain specialized situations.

But even here, some doubts remain
concerning how cost- and time-effective
it may be.

But let's not pick on dumb machines!

Back to human errors!
Fortunately--so far at least--they are far rarer.


In a Bucharest hotel lobby:

The lift is being fixed for the next day.
During that time we regret that you will be unbearable.


Sign touting donkey rides in Thailand:

Would you like to ride on your own ass?


A (former) Yugoslavian hotel:

The flattening of underwear with pleasure is the job of the
chambermaid.


In a Copenhagen airline office:

We take your bags and send them in all directions.


In a Norwegian cocktail lounge:

Ladies are requested not to have children at the bar.


At a very posh Acapulco hotel:

The manager has personally passed all the water served here.


The full version of this program contains three times as
many Bloopers (and over twice as much of everything else)
as this abridged version.

See the file ORDER.DOC if you wish to obtain it.


This is the end of Part 2.

Part 3 will begin in 10 seconds.



SPRAY IT AGAIN, SAM
The Real Story of Language And Translation
A Semi-Humorous Account
By Alex Gross



Once upon a time there were only animals.

No men.

No women.

Not even persons.


They needed to tell each other things.
At least about their own lives.

They needed to talk about territory.
About food and mating.
 About mutual status and danger.

BUT HOW COULD THEY DO THIS?


By spraying everything around them with a special scent.

"This is my turf."

"My store of food."

"My mate."


It was messy.
It wasn't always clear.
And it could cause trouble.

So just to clear things up,
some of the animals
started barking at each other too.


Others tried howling.

Or hissing.

Or grunting, moaning, and groaning.


And that's how they managed things.

Either by spraying,
or by barking, grunting, hissing, etc.

But there were problems.


At one point a whole bunch of creatures
got together at an Evolutionary Progress
Conference and had an argument.


It was a waste of energy, said some.
Why should we have two ways
of communicating, why should we both
spray and make sounds, they asked.

Why not combine them both
INTO ONE FUNCTION?


But others objected.
They enjoyed spraying
and didn't want to give it up.

So very little changed.


After a few billion years,
a whole new bunch
of apes came along.

Some decided they could say
things better by combining
barks, howls and hisses
in very specific ways.


But this idea had a few problems.
The old way of doing
things--spray, growls,
and hisses--didn't say much.

BUT IT WAS PRETTY UNMISTAKABLE.


Combining all these sounds
made it harder to tell
one meaning from another.

This meant you could sometimes
get the wrong message.

Besides, where did this leave spraying?


It also meant a few things
had to happen before such
a system could work.

First, these apes needed a way
to make these sounds PLUS a
special kind of hearing
to tell them apart.


Not to mention
greater intelligence,
so they could be sure
what the sounds meant.

Some say this is
still a problem.


It also meant limiting
the number of sounds permitted
in any spray-growl-hiss system.
That way there would be less confusion.


After several million years,
a few apes finally
got this right.

At the next Evolutionary
Progress Conference, they told
the other creatures
that they were moving
their spray apparatus upstairs
and combining it
with their biting system.


This was not a hit
with the other creatures,
and these apes had no choice
but to go off on their own.

But the apes didn't mind this at all.


They were proud,
because they were sure
they had solved
all the world's
communication problems
for all time.


First, they set up
a system for making sure
all their "spray-sounds"
were always spoken correctly.

They would enclose
each moan in a little capsule
with a distinctive shape.


Call these little capsules "consonants"
and the moan sounds they contain "vowels,"
and it all makes fairly good sense.


There were rules
for placing capsules together
so they could be spoken correctly.

This also helped you
to tell members of your own clan
from dangerous outsiders.


But many problems remained.

You could only tell
these new sounds apart
if a single clan kept
living closely together
in the same area.


If families and clans
drifted apart, their sounds
and meanings started drifting too.

In some places they are
still drifting even today.


But these apes started
migrating in every direction,
their sound systems constantly
changing as they went.

And this whole process
may have started twice or more
in different places.

There's no way we can know for sure.
Apes don't write histories.


As they wandered,
all their sound-spray
systems scattered to the winds.

And so did the capsules
containing their moans.
Even the systems for making capsules changed.


Apes living in new climes
started inventing new spray-sounds
to describe things.

They launched new technologies,
world outlooks, religions,
all requiring new spray-sounds.


After a few million years,
these apes had another idea.

They were tired of repeating themselves,
and they also needed some system
for recording the growing number
of their possessions.


This is important, said some,
so let's carve it in stone.

It's easier stamping it
in clay, said others.

Still others longed for
a brush or quill,
if only they could
find some paper.


And so after a while
Science Marched On,
finally.

But not without a multitude
of languages and dialects to deal with.

AND HERE IT IS THAT WE TRANSLATORS ENTER THE SCENE!


Consider all these different
sound-spray systems, each with
its own way of encapsulating
sound and meaning.

What do they most resemble?


Are they not in some ways
similar to highly sophisticated
hydraulic networks?  Or perhaps
more homespun plumbing systems,
each one built from different materials
according to different rules?



Could this be what translators and interpreters
really are--hydraulic engineers of the mind
and/or pioneering plumbers of meaning,
in the several senses of "to plumb?"


Whatever system of pipes or hydraulic devices
are used in Language A,
translators must build a comparable system
in Language B,
even though the two systems can never be the same.


The watery element is unavoidable,
since language is still
largely based on spray.

Animals spray everything around
them--people talk at or about
everything around them.



And we become quite upset
when our spray marks prove mistaken
or are violated by others.

If you doubt this, consider how
we still use language today:


To defend turf or property.

To proclaim our rights.

To proclaim our love for--and
property rights in--our mate.

To assert our status.


Perhaps these categories
are now enlarged by political
disputes, intellectual pursuits,
and academic feuding.

But this is debatable.


These spray-sounds can
also cause trouble...

Many creatures assume
the spray-sound they assign
to something
      IS
the thing itself.


Sometimes other creatures
don't agree and insist that
another spray-sound
          IS
that very same thing.

Once this happens,
matters often deteriorate...



Or perhaps two creatures agree
on the spray-sound
but don't agree on
what it means.

This rarely works out much better.


Using language as a form of spray
could also explain many forms of
fundamentalism, literalness, and
congealed ideologies seen around us.

Such behaviors spring from
those still clinging to the spray-using
stage of producing language.


Moreover, spray is still
so much a part of language
that we would still prefer
to stand at a distance
when some people speak.


Human language is quite literally
"glorified" animal spray.

And animal spray is primal language.


     IMPORTANT:

     Author's Apology!!!

But all this must be mistaken!
It is only a joke and
could not possibly be true.


We humans have gone
     FAR BEYOND
primitive spraying
of our surroundings!


After all, we have invented
the Arts, Literature, Literary
Criticism, Linguistics, Transformational
Syntax, Universal Grammar,
Deep Structure, Computational
Semantics, Translation Studies,
and many other sublime
and elevated sciences.


Obviously, if such a primitive theory
were true, these advanced sciences
would
     CERTAINLY
have long ago
confirmed its validity.

But they have not done so...
they have never remotely
suggested such a theory.


So there is no need for you
to believe any of this,
if you find it
the slightest bit
objectionable.


On the other hand, you
just might want to
make up your own mind...



NOTE: The preceding theory has
appeared in print in two scholarly
publications: the Sci-Tech
Translation Journal (Oct., )
and Vol. VI of the
ATA Scholarly Series.

A Few Parting Thoughts:

What you have just seen is still largely unknown
to linguists, cultural anthropologists, historians,
teachers of foreign languages and literature,
and even to most translators.


The demand for translations has greatly expanded
over the last few decades.

Of this demand, 90% is for technical or
commercial translations, as opposed to 10% for
literary works.


Many "machine translation" programs have been
abandoned or have fallen into disuse.

In some cases their authors have modified
their original arguments.


Other authorities believe that such projects can
still be successful.  The Generative-Transformational
school of linguistics (Chomskianism) tends to encourage a belief
that differences between languages are essentially trivial
in nature.


As the material in this program clearly shows,
this may simply be untrue, and a new approach to language,
combining elements of linguistics and translation theory,
may be in order.


Throughout the history of language and translation, would-be
experts often express surprise that people don't always
say "the same thing" in "the same way."  They then go on
to invent questionable theories to "prove" it is the
same anyway.



About the Author...

Alex Gross has contributed many papers and articles about
translation, computers, and linguistics to scholarly and
professional publications.  Some of these are reproduced
following the file ARTICLE0.SEE, as ARTICLE1, ARTICLE2, etc.
He has served as PR Committee Chair for the American Translators
Association and was one of the co-founders of the New York Circle
of Translators.  A version of this program is being prepared
for the purpose of educating translators and translation
students.  He is Adjunct Lecturer in Translation History at
the NYU Post-Graduate Translation Studies Program.  A produced
playwright, his translation specialties are stage plays and
poetry, though he has also translated diplomatic and business
texts and has even done work on Chinese herbal medical theory.


The author wishes to extend special thanks to the following
individuals--both ATA and non-ATA members--for their help during
various phases of completing this program: Ali Ekram Ali, Ronnie
Apter, Liz Scott Andrews, Walter Bacak, Bob Bononno, Albert Bork,
Brad Blanchard, John Bukacek, Vigdis Eriksen, Loië Feuerle, Mark
Herman, Harald Hille, Muriel Jérôme-O'Keefe, Peter Krawutschke,
Edith Losa, Jean-François Sanders, Alex Schwartz, Marilyn Stone,
Robert Sussman, Laurie reuhaft, Liomnel Tsao, Ernst Waldeck, and
Apollo Wu.

He also wishes to express his sincerest thanks to his wife Ilene
for her steadfast patience during this Quixotic project.


        FURTHER NOTE:
A complete Bibliography and Scholarly apparatus is available
not only for these quotations but for all the material
in the full version, containing twice as many
quotations, three times as many bloopers,
and one other section.

You can order this version by following the instructions
in the file ORDER.DOC.  See also the file README.1ST,
which contains much information about this program
and also explains about the "Automessage" program on
which this program is based.

        FINAL NOTE:
This program will now start over again
from the very beginning.

You can find all its parts in printable form
in the file ALLTEXT.ASC.