Changing Perceptions

Thus over the years the perceptions of translation and translator have been changing. The major concerns have been and still are, about the autonomy of the text and translator. In the period up to the World War I, Susan Bassnett discerns five broad areas into which translation can be classified:

• Translation as scholarly activity where the SL text is acknowledged to be superior. The translator is subservient to the writer and has a self-effacing role. An example could be the translation of classics like Homer.

• Translation as mediating influence that helps the reader to get acquainted with the SL in the original. The translator is again on an inferior footing, but the translation also tries to mediate between two cultures. Sir William Jones’s translation of Kalidasa is an illustration of this.

• Translation, through its foreignness, makes the reader better understand the SL text. This might make the translation difficult to read—William Morris’s translation of Homer being an example.

• Translation that reveals the translator’s personal choice. Ezra Pound’s translation of Chinese poetry reveals his personal preference and nothing else.

• Translation that tries to uplift the SL text that is seen as inferior. Firtzgerald’s condescension regarding the Persian text that he was translating is illustrative of this.