Translation. An occupation that in the not-so-distant future will be replaced
by golden, fussy robots with an English accent and worry-prone personalities... or will it?
In a nutshell, translation is the process of conveying meaning from one
language into another. Let me give you an example: remember Missandei, the curly
haired beauty from Naath? Well, she's both a translator and an
interpreter. These two professions are often confused. Interpreting antedated
writing, as it is the use of oral or sign language communication between users of
different languages. Translating began only after the appearance of written
language. Therefore, translators are different from interpreters and
definitely not dictionaries! They are also curious, perfectionists, bookworms,
patient and most of the time, loners. It is widely accepted that translation
predates the Bible, though its origins have long been debated by historians and
scholars. One thing is for certain though: as people started exploring the globe
and expanding their societies, the demand for translation services continued to
grow, especially now, with businesses acknowledging the inability to expand internationally
without translating marketing material and business
documents. The word translation comes from a Latin term, which means to bring
or carry across. Another relevant term comes from the ancient Greek world of
metaphrasis, which means to speak across and from
this, the term metaphrase was born, which means a word-for-word translation. It is
known that translation was carried out as early as the Mesopotamian era. There
exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh into
Southwest Asian languages. Other Asian translated works include those carried
out by the Buddhist monks, who translated Indian documents into Chinese.
In later periods ancient Greek texts were also translated by Roman poets and
were adapted to create developed literary works of entertainment. The need
for translation became greater with the development of religious texts and
spiritual theories. As religion developed, the desire to
spread the word and encourage faith meant that religious texts needed to be
available in multiple languages.
A WILD SAINT GEROME APPEARS! He was the first to
translate the Bible from Greek and Hebrew into Latin... though he made a
mistake: he translated the Hebrew word Keren as grew horn instead of radiated
light, which led to photos of Moses with horns on his head instead of radiating
light. He is now the patron Saint of translators, bless his heart. And in
modern times, the Rosetta stone which was discovered in 1799 proved to be the key
to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs. Because of the laboriousness of
translation, since the 1940s engineers have sought to automate translations or
to mechanically aid the human translators. The rise of the internet has
fostered a worldwide market for translation services and has facilitated
language localization. Translators have often been hidden characters, unnamed
people who lurk behind the words and have paved the way for some of the
greatest contributions to the dissemination of knowledge throughout
the ages. In some cases, working as a translator was incredibly dangerous and
some even lost their lives because of their work. Just think of the modern-day
translators and interpreters who work in war zones. So now you know: you want to
sign a contract with a foreign company? Hire a translator! If you want to build a
massive tower in Babel, get yourself an interpreter. Just remember to bring them
coffee and always, ALWAYS #hireapro!
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