Europe

Etienne Dolet

In the meantime, translation was developing in other European countries as well. Though the practice of translation was by now a nearly perfected art, yet theories on the practice were still undeveloped. One of the first to come up with a theoretical framework, or to articulate the how and why of translation, was a Frenchman called Etienne Dolet. In 1540, he wrote a book called How to Translate Well from One Language into AnotherThis gave detailed insights into the perils and pitfalls one encounters in the art of translation. He outlined five principles on which the translator should operate. But Dolet is remarkable for one other reason—he is perhaps the first martyr to the cause of translation. He was executed because he was accused of ‘mistranslating’ Plato, or of distorting his views so that Plato came across as an atheist. This also points to the fact that one should be extremely cautious in the use of words while translating! However, Dolet’s views on translation were considered to be valid by his contemporaries like Chapman and are taken seriously by translation theorists today.