Problems and Possibilities in the Translation of the Classics Page: III
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quite rightly, that it is easy for the translator obsessed with
consistency to get all the words right while producing a
translation that is distorted at best and unintelligible at
worst. Of course, I agree that a farrago of words translated one
at a time without regard for sense is useless. Who wouldn't?
But even the most liberal translators, whether they like it or
not, must admit that consistent terminology plays a role of some
importance in translation. Suppose a translator of the Aeneld
rendered pietas variously as "piety," "devotion," "filial
respect," and "loyalty," according to metrical constraints or
simply because, to trace his own thoughts, he was "concerned with
conveying the sense of the text, and not with the words
themselves." With Kant, I would hasten to point out to such a
translator that "there is really no art in being generally
comprehensible if one thereby renounces all basic insight"
(Foundations of the Metaphysics of //o/'aJs/Macmillan/1959/p.26).
And few would deny that it would be difficult for & reader of the
Aeneid to have much insight into it without an appreciation of
the Importance Vergil attaches to the single, recurring word,
pietas.
However, the debate over the importance of word-to-word
correspondence in translation has raged too long for me to
resolve it in this little preface. So I must offer something
more than consistent terminology to the scholars who scoff at it
in order for them to take my translation seriously. To such
scholars I offer my Ignorance.
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Davis, Mike Lee. Problems and Possibilities in the Translation of the Classics, thesis or dissertation, Autumn 1990; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc146413/m1/4/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Honors College.