Introduction

In the last lecture we looked at the position of translation in the world today, and the role of the translator. Translation has gained in importance as it has become a necessary requisite for the smooth conduct of business and state affairs in a rapidly shrinking globalized world. Organizations like the UN, European Union, World Bank and IMF that are not confined to national boundaries have what Andrew Jocelyne describes as ‘foundational multilinguality’, in that they have many official or working languages (qtd in Translation and Globalization, 111). It is a multilingual world that acknowledges the fact and tries to cope with it by communicating with each other through translators or interpreters. In a world that is increasingly troubled by differences in the name of religion, culture and power this becomes a significant gesture of understanding another language or culture.

However, is translation really helping in building a multilingual world where there is mutual respect and understanding for each other’s language? Or is it simply replicating the world of economic and political power where the powerful few dictate orders to the powerless many? What is the real picture behind the heartening increase in translation activity of the past few decades? Is the world coming closer to the Biblical  Babel,  a monoglossic world which understands only one language, namely English? There are no accurate answers to these questions, and we can only attempt to find answers. Asking the right questions would perhaps succeed in staving off the threat of extinction that many ‘powerless’ or minority languages in the world is facing today.