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Chapter1: Western Translation History in the Old Ages

钟雨露 Zhong Yulu, Hunan Normal University, China

Abstract

Many translation historians believe that translation is an extremely ancient activity, no matter in the West or the East. However, the history of translation has long been neglected in the field of research. Translation researchers tend to focus on the study of translation techniques and theories while neglecting the study of the history of translation. The western translation history has a long history of more than two thousand years from ancient times, which has experienced the Old Ages, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the Modern times. As we all know, when we know something, we often need to go back to its origin. Western translation history can be traced back to the third century BC, which opened the prelude of the history of western translation. This paper will study the western translation history in the Old Ages to help readers have a deep understanding of the history of translation and translation itself.

Many translation historians believe that translation is an extremely ancient activity, no matter in the West or the East. However, the history of translation has long been neglected in the field of research. Translation researchers tend to focus on the study of translation techniques and theories while neglecting the study of the history of translation. The western translation history has a long history of more than two thousand years from ancient times, which has experienced the Old Ages, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the Modern times. As we all know, when we know something, we often need to go back to its origin. Western translation history can be traced back to the third century BC, which opened the prelude of the history of western translation. This paper will study the western translation history in the Old Ages to help readers have a deep understanding of the history of translation and translation itself. Corrected by--Zhong Yifei (talk) 12:12, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

Key words

Western translation history; the Old Ages; Andronicus; the Bible translation

摘要

许多翻译史家认为，无论在西方还是东方，翻译都是一项极其古老的活动。然而，翻译历史在研究领域被长期忽视。翻译研究者往往关注翻译技巧和翻译理论的研究，而忽略了对翻译史的研究。西方的翻译史从古至今已有两千多年的历史，经历了古代、中世纪、文艺复兴、近代和现代等发展时期。众所周知，当我们认识一个事物时，常常需要追本溯源。西方的翻译可以追溯到公元前三世纪，它揭开了西方翻译史的序幕。这篇论文将对西方古代翻译史进行研究，帮助读者对翻译历史以及翻译本身有一个更深入的了解。

关键词

西方翻译史；古代；安德罗尼柯；圣经翻译

Introduction

Throughout human history, language translation has been almost as old as language itself. The relationship between the two primitive tribes, from antagonism to amity, all depends on the exchange of ideas, mutual understanding and translation. The Genesis describes that Greece and Persia signed the Treaty of Cary Aas in 449 BC, and the ancient Roman Empire recruited German soldiers for its army. All these activities relied on interpreters. Similarly in China, for example, Confucius traveled various kingdoms where spoke different languages, so he also needed to rely on interpreters to communicate with others. However, there is no record of who these interpreters were, or historians have yet to discover them. The same is true in the West. Therefore, to discuss the history of translation, we can only start from the period of historical records. (Xie, 2009: 57)

In Europe, the history of translation can date back to the third century BC. In a broad sense, the earliest translation in the West is Septuagint, translated by 72 Jewish scholars in Alexandria of Egypt around the third century BC. Strictly speaking, the first translation in the West is Andronicus’ Latin translation of Homer’s epics Odyssey around the middle of the third century BC. No matter the former or the latter one, they are both invented in the third century BC, that is the time of Livius Andronicus（the first Roman translator）. Before discussing this point, we must briefly review the historical background at that time. (Xie, 2009: 65)

In the 6th century BC, Rome entered the slave society from the primitive commune and established the Roman Republic. With the development of productivity, the Roman Republic grew. The rulers began to expand outwards for their own benefit. By the third century BC, Rome, with its increasing military force, first conquered the entire Italian peninsula. And after four Macedonian Wars, Rome controlled the whole of Greece. Thus, Rome replaced Greece's dominant position in the Mediterranean area in politics, economy as well as military, and became a powerful empire.

Rome and Greece are geographically adjacent to each other. Some Greeks had long been immigrated to the territory of Rome. Later, Rome conquered the Greece, so it was able to contact with the Greek culture directly. Since Greece had a splendid culture heritage, the Romans began to translate the Greek books on a large scale from the third century BC. And also in this time, the written records of translation appeared. Livius Andronicus, Gnaeus Naevius, and Quintus Ennius, considered the three founders of Roman literature, all translated or adapted Homer's epics and the Greek plays of Aischulos, Sophokles, and Euripides in Latin. The Romans inherited the Greek culture through translation and imitation. They did not inherit it simply, but carried it forward, and formed their own unique culture. Roman culture was formed by absorbing the cultural achievements of different regions on the basis of the economic and political relations of that time. This is the first large-scale translation activity in Europe and the whole Western history. Some translation activities in Europe probably existed long before that. However, from the existing written records, the history of western translation has just opened its first chapter. (Xu, 2006: 363)

Throughout human history, language translation has been almost as old as language itself. The relationship between the two primitive tribes, from antagonism to amity, all depends on the exchange of ideas, mutual understanding and translation. The Genesis describes that Greece and Persia signed the Treaty of Cary Aas in 449 BC, and the ancient Roman Empire recruited German soldiers for its army. All these activities relied on interpreters. Similarly in China, for example, Confucius traveled various kingdoms where spoke different languages, so he also needed to rely on interpreters to communicate with others. However, there is no record of who these interpreters were, or historians have yet to discover them. The same is true in the West. Therefore, to discuss the history of translation, we can only start from the period of historical records. (Xie, 2009: 57)

In Europe, the history of translation can date back to the third century BC. In a broad sense, the earliest translation in the West is Septuagint, translated by 72 Jewish scholars in Alexandria of Egypt around the third century BC. Strictly speaking, the first translation in the West is Andronicus’ Latin translation of Homer’s epics Odyssey around the middle of the third century BC. No matter the former or the latter one, they are both invented in the third century BC, that is the time of Livius Andronicus（the first Roman translator）. Before discussing this point, we must briefly review the historical background at that time. In the 6th century BC, Rome entered the slave society from the primitive commune and established the Roman Republic. With the development of productivity, the Roman Republic grew. The rulers began to expand outwards for their own benefit. By the third century BC, Rome, with its increasing military force, first conquered the entire Italian peninsula. And after four Macedonian Wars, Rome controlled the whole of Greece. Thus, Rome replaced Greece's dominant position in the Mediterranean area in politics, economy as well as military, and became a powerful empire.

Rome and Greece are geographically adjacent to each other. Some Greeks had long been immigrated to the territory of Rome. Later, Rome conquered the Greece, so it was able to contact with the Greek culture directly. Since Greece had a splendid culture heritage, the Romans began to translate the Greek books on a large scale from the third century BC. And also in this time, the written records of translation appeared. Livius Andronicus, Gnaeus Naevius, and Quintus Ennius, considered the three founders of Roman literature, all translated or adapted Homer's epics and the Greek plays of Aischulos, Sophokles, and Euripides in Latin. The Romans inherited the Greek culture through translation and imitation. They did not inherit it simply, but carried it forward, and formed their own unique culture. Roman culture was formed by absorbing the cultural achievements of different regions on the basis of the economic and political relations of that time. This is the first large-scale translation activity in Europe and the whole Western history. Some translation activities in Europe probably existed long before that. However, from the existing written records, the history of western translation has just opened its first chapter. (Xu, 2006: 363) Corrected by--Zhong Yifei (talk) 12:14, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

The Latin Translation of the Ancient Greek Classics

From the above historical background, it can be seen that the translation activities in early Rome were the translation of ancient Greek classics. These translation activities continued until the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century AD. The whole process can be divided into two major stages, namely the Roman Republic stage and the Roman Empire stage. The translation objects during the Roman Republic mainly focused on dramas and epics, which formed the cultural translation tradition in the history of western translation. In the Roman Empire, the translation objects were mostly philosophy and religion, which later formed the tradition of the Bible translation in the history of western translation. It is worth mentioning that the translation ideas of the Roman Empire later became the source of the entire history of western translation thoughts, and the Romans were also considered to be the inventors of western translation theories. (Bassett, 2004: 57)

Livius Andronicus(284?BC—204BC)

In the translation activities of the early Romans, Greek drama was undoubtedly their most concern. The native Roman drama was an improvisational comedy, which was not as complete and rich as Greek drama in terms of language, performance and costume. Therefore, Greek drama, as a new form of entertainment, attracted Roman soldiers who came to Greece because of war and writers who made a living by writing from the 4th to the 3rd century BC. They soon introduced this novel form of entertainment to Rome, while writers translated Greek plays into Latin. In fact, it was not a translation, but an extremely liberal adaptation. The main purpose of it was not to produce accurate translation for academic study, but for performance and entertainment, so a large number of deletions and additions were inevitable in translation. (Lefevere, 2006: 15)

Among these early translators, the first to be mentioned is Livius Andronicus. He was the earliest translator of Rome and was known as “the father of Roman poetry”. Andronicus was born in the Greek colony of Taranto(a port city of southeast Italy today) around 284 BC. He was enslaved by the Romans, who captured the city around 272 BC. He was later set free and became his master's tutor, teaching Latin and Greek. One of the great difficulties he encountered in teaching was that there were no books available to teach Latin. To facilitate his teaching, he began to translate some books. Around 250 BC, he translated some fragments of Homer's Odyssey into Latin in Saturnian verse, a free-flowing translation that had long served as a textbook. Although the translation is of little literary value, it is the first Latin poem and the first literary work to be translated into Latin in the history of Roman literature. In addition, Andronicus introduced a new literary genre -- epic for Roman literature through his adaptation and translation works. One of the major features of the translation of Odyssey is that when translating the names of Greek gods, Andronicus did not use transliteration, but directly replaced the corresponding Greek gods with Roman gods. For example, the Greek god Zeus was translated into Jupiter, the Roman god; The Greek Cronos was translated into Saturns, the Roman god of agriculture; the Greek Muses was translated into Camenae, etc. Andronicus’ translation, though not accepted by modern translators, promoted the integration of Roman gods with Greek gods and played a positive role in enriching Roman culture.In addition, Andronicus also translated and adapted Greek plays. He translated and adapted nine tragedies by the major Greek writers Aischulos, Sophokles and Euripides, such as Agamemnon, Oedipus the King and Medea. And he translated and adapted three comedies, all of which were written by Menandros. (Tan, 2004: 16)

From the literary perspective, Andronicus’ translations, such as those of Odyssey, are crude. However, his contribution was not in the translation itself, but that he was the first to introduce ancient Greek epics and plays to Roman society and to adapt Greek verse and rhyme to the Latin language. Through the efforts of him and many other contemporary and subsequent translators, the style of the ancient Greek dramas had a profound influence on the later European dramas.

Gnaeus Naevius(270 BC—200? BC)

In the era of Andronicus, translation activities had gradually developed. The great movement of people caused by the Roman conquests led to an increase in the number of polyglots. And people had a growing interest in Greek culture. Many poets and playwrights also engaged in extensive translation of Greek works. The chief translators after Andronicus were Gnaeus Naevius and Quintus Ennius. The two men were basically contemporaries of Andronicus and enjoyed equal popularity with him in ancient Latin poetry and dramatic achievements. Some people refer to them as “the three founding fathers of ancient Roman literature creation and translation.”

Gnaeus Naevius was born in the Campania of present-day Italy. He lived at a time when Rome was actively expanding outward. When he was young, he served in the Roman army and fought in the first Punic War. As a writer with democratic leanings, he was imprisoned for his scathing attacks on the Roman authorities. After his release from prison, he continued to criticize the current government and was eventually expelled from Rome. Naevius first began writing and performing plays in 235 BC. He loved drama and translated 30 comedies and 6 tragedies in his lifetime. His works were not mere imitations of Greek classics, but a mixture of translation, creation and adaptation. His contribution to Roman literature is to nationalize Roman comedy. (Luo, 2007: 279)

In his translation, adaptation and composition of comedies, he mostly adopted the form of Greek comedy, but inserted many pure Roman characteristics. In addition, he wrote historical plays on the basis of real Roman events. He was the originator of Roman historical plays. His most important literary achievement is epic writing. His 7-volume epic Punic War describes the first Punic War in Greek poetic style, making a bold attempt to establish the tradition of Roman national epic. His epic, Punic War, which was based on his own experiences of the wars between the Romans and the Carthaginians of North Africa, interspersed with historical events and myths. It was the first Roman epic, and it had a big influence on Virgil in writing Aeneid. From the fragments of his works that have survived, we can see that the writing and translation style of Naevius is concise, and is clearly better than that of Andronicus. (Jiang, 2006: 108–109)

Quintus Ennius(239? BC–169 BC)

Comparing with Naevius' translation of comedy and historical play writing, Ennius' contribution to ancient Roman literature lies in his creation of ancient Roman tragedy. He was born in 239 BC in Calabria of Italy. Although it was not a Greek settlement, it was heavily influenced by Greece because of its geographical location. So Ennius grew up in Greek culture from an early age. The biographer Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (2nd century AD) called him “half Greek”. He mastered three languages: the first one was Oscan, the dialect of his hometown; the second one was Greek, which he had learned at school; and the last one was Latin, which he had learned while serving in the Roman army during the Second Punic War. In the literary activities during Ennius' life, the most important work which also brought him the greatest reputation was the epic Histories. But his contribution in translation was also very important. Ennius mostly translated Greek tragedies, and he tried to translate the works of all three major Greek tragic writers. Through translation, he transplanted a Greek rhyme to Rome, and made a reform of the composition of Latin poetry. In addition, Ennius himself wrote at least six tragedies, the most famous of which was Iphigenia, which was comparable to the works of Euripides. “His psychological description is profound and meticulous”, so he is known as “the father of Roman literature”. (Jiang, 2006: 280)

In conclusion, Andronicus, Naevius and Ennius, together with other contemporary writers and translators, passed on the Greek literary heritage to the later generations through translation and adaptation. Their literary and translation activities also played an important role in enriching the Roman culture and developing its literature.

The Origin of Western Translation Thought

Although the practice of translation was quite popular in the early period, no one paid much attention to the research on translation theories and methods before Cicero. The main purpose of translation was to introduce Greek culture so that Roman readers or audiences could be entertained by these translated or adapted works and plays. As for translation theory, even if there were some broken ideas, they were only used to counter critics and defend translation works.

Marcus Tullius Cicero(106 BC—43 BC)

Cicero was an orator, politician and philosopher of the late Roman Republic and one of the most influential figures in ancient Rome. He was born in Epino, a small city near Rome. When he was young, he studied law, literature and philosophy in Rome and Athens. And later he served as a consul of the Roman Republic. In the political crisis of the late Roman Republic, he advocated republicanism and supported Octavius. In this way, he offended Mark Antony and was killed by him. He was not only a famous orator, statesman, philosopher and rhetorician in Roman history, but also a prolific translator. Cicero translated a great deal of Greek literature, politics and philosophy. For instance, Homer's Odyssey, Plato's Timaeus and Protagoras. Cicero's literary achievements made a great contribution to the development of Latin language. He was a famous literary figure in Rome at that time, with a magnificent oratory and fluent prose that set the literary style of Latin language.

Cicero not only translated many Greek classics, but also created many terms and Latin words that are still used today. While expounding rhetoric ideas, he gradually formed his own translation thoughts. His exposition of translation thoughts mainly focuses on two works: De Oratore (55 B.C.) and De Optima Genera Oratorio (46 B.C.). His main translation ideas are as follows: First of all, Cicero made a clear distinction between “interpreter” and “orator” (what we later call literal translation and free translation). He was opposed to the “word-for-word” translation method. He believed that translation was not an imitation of the original text. The translator should not be an interpreter of the original text, but an orator delivering a speech to the audience: “I translate not as an interpreter, but as an orator, keeping the same ideas and forms and using a language that conforms to our expressive habits. In this process, I think it is not necessary to translate word for word, but to preserve the overall style and power of the language.” It was clear that Cicero saw a fundamental difference between the interpreter and the orator. The former does not have the ability to control language and can only use the “word-for-word” translation method. It focuses on the conversion of words and only conveys the literal meaning of the original text, rather than the thoughts of the orator. The latter pays attention to the retention of the overall style of language. It can effectively reproduce the thought and motivation of the orator, and can deliver rich emotions in public speeches. Secondly, Cicero put forward the concept of “competitive imitation” when translating ancient Greek literature. It means that literary translation should not only need literary talent, but also be more literary than the original one. Cicero demanded that translation should be a transmission of meaning, not a literal rewriting. But at the same time, at the lexical level, Cicero was very particular about the accurate translation of ancient Greek philosophical concepts. Thirdly, he also held that words and meanings are functionally inseparable, which is a universal language phenomenon. Since rhetoric devices are based on the natural connection between words and meanings, rhetoric devices of various languages have something in common with each other. This shows that translation can achieve stylistic equivalence. (Cicero, 2007:9)

Cicero's view can be summarized as follows: literal translation should be avoided, and the innermost thing of words -- meaning should be preserved in translation. To some extent, Cicero greatly developed translation theory, and his translation thoughts exerted a great influence on later translators and translation theorists, which occupied an important position in the history of translation. While discussing early translation theories, the British translation theorist Susan Bassnett have suggested: “Cicero and Horace’s translation thoughts have a significant impact on later translators. Their translation thoughts are produced in the discussion about two important responsibilities of poets: one is the common human responsibility to obtain and transmit wisdom; the other is the special art of creating and shaping poetry.” (Bassnett, 2004: 48)

Quintus Horatius Flaccus (65 BC—8 BC)

Horace became another representative translation thinker after Cicero. Horace was a famous poet, critic and translator in the early Roman Empire. Influenced by Cicero, he also believed that literal translation must be avoided and flexible translation method should be adopted. His treatise on translation theory was mainly seen in Ars Poetica. This was a letter to a Roman nobleman and his son. Combined with the status of Roman literature and art at that time, the principles of poetry and drama were put forward in this letter. His translation thoughts are as follows: Firstly, Horace believed that translators should adopt flexible translation method and reject literal translation method. He put forward the concept of “fidusinterpres” (it means faithful translation). However, the object of Horace's “fidusinterpres” is not the text, but the “customer”, and of course only the customer or reader of Horace's time. “A faithful translator/interpreter should be trusted by others. He needs to finish the task on time and achieve the satisfaction of both parties. To do this, he, as an interpreter, negotiates between clients by using two different languages. In the case of a translator, he negotiates between the customer and the two languages. Negotiation is the key, it is opposed to traditional reciprocal loyalty.” That is to say, translators and interpreters sometimes have to be “not very” faithful in order to avoid failure in negotiations if they want to do business. Horace proposed flexible translation and emphasized loyalty to the “customer”, the ultimate guide to translation. The “customer” in Horace's translation model is actually what we called “context” later, and the translation principle of "faithful translation for customers" has been developed into "translation according to context" for later generations. Secondly, Horace also proposed the concept of “privileged language”. In Horace's time, Latin was the privileged language. He asked translators to prefer the privileged language, Latin, which meant that foreign languages would be assimilated in translation. This was also a reflection of Horace's translation thought that tended to be “naturalized”, but his concept was also controversial and opposed by Schleiermacher. He emphasized that “faithful translation” should retain the national characteristics of the source culture, and his translation thought tended to be close to "foreignization". The two translation thoughts are opposite, and their respective focuses are also the topic of the early discussion of “domestication” and “foreignization”. Thirdly, he thinks the native language can be enriched by translation of loanwords. If the thing you want to express is very profound and must be expressed by new words, you can create new words to some degree. It not only can meet the needs of writing and translating, but also can enrich the language of the motherland. (Horace, 1981:79)

Horace's view on translation has exerted a great influence on later generations. His statement in Ars Poetica “a translator who is faithful to the original text will not translate word by word” is often quoted by later generations and used by free translators to criticize dead and direct translators. His idea of “enriching Latin through translation” is of great significance and influences many translators after the Renaissance.

Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (35?– 95?)

Quintilian was another famous figure who advocated flexible translation after Cicero and Horace. Quintilian was born in 35 AD in a small town of Galaguris in the upper reaches of the Ebro River in northern Spain. He was an orator and educator during the Roman Empire. His thoughts on translation were concentrated in his book De institutione oratoria. Although this book primarily concerned with Quintilian's educational ideas, it made important observations on the subject of translation. He noted differences in vocabulary, rhetoric between Greek and Latin, but he did not think such differences would lead to untranslatability. In his opinion, no matter how different languages and cultures are, there are various ways to express the same thought and emotion. Although translation cannot achieve the same effect as the original work, it can approach the original work through various means. In addition, he also proposed that translation should struggle with the original work. He said: “As for translation, I mean not only free translation, but also the struggle and competition with the original text in expressing the same meaning.” That is to say, translation is also a kind of creation, which must be comparable with the original work and even strive to surpass it. (Robinson, 1997:20)

It is not hard to find that the above three ancient scholars’ translation views have some similarities. They all oppose literal translation and advocate creative free translation. To talk about the early western translation theories, we should first clarify a fact— in the special context of ancient Rome, individual translators or translation theorists represented by Cicero did not talk about translation exclusively, but instead regarded translation as an exercise in rhetoric education and literary creation. Translation serves speech and literary creation and does not have the value of independent existence. In spite of this, their translation thoughts are of great significance, which create the first literary school in the history of western translation and form a distinctive tradition in the later development of translation theory.

Early Bible Translation And St. Jerome As Well As St. Augustine

Bible translation plays an important role in the history of western translation. From the ancient times to the present day, the translation of the Bible has never stopped. The range of languages, the number of translations and the frequency of use of the translations are unmatched by the translations of any other works. From the macro view of the Bible translation history, it has the following several important milestones: the first is The Septuagint; then followed by Vulgate of four to five centuries; later there are different language versions in the early Middle Ages(such as Martin Luther’s version in Germany, the King James Bible in Britain, etc.) and various modern versions. All these translations have made indelible contributions to the spread and development of Christianity in the West, as well as to the flourishing of national languages and cultures.

The Septuagint

The first important translation of the Bible in the West was the Greek version of the Old Testament. The Old Testament was the official text of Judaism, and it was first written in Hebrew. Because the Jews were scattered and drifted abroad for a long time, they gradually forgot the language of their ancestors. So they used Arabic and Greek and other foreign languages, among which Greek speakers accounted for the majority. In ancient times, the Alexandria of Egypt was a cultural and trading center in the eastern Mediterranean region, where Jews accounted for two-fifths of the city’s total population. In the third century BC, the church decided to translate the Hebrew text of the Old Testament into Greek to meet the increasingly urgent religious needs of these Greek-speaking Jews. According to Ptolemy II’s will, 72 Jewish scholars gathered at the Library of Alexandria in Egypt between 285 and 249 BC to translate the Bible. According to legend, the 72 scholars came from 12 different Israeli tribes, each with six members. When they arrived at the Library of Alexandria, they worked in pairs in 36 different places and produced 36 very similar translations. In the end, 72 translators got together to check the 36 translations, and chose the final version, which they called The Septuagint. (Liao, 2000: 2)

The translation of The Septuagint has two main characteristics. First of all, it is not an individual achievement, but the result of many people’s cooperation, which opens the history of collective cooperation in translation. A great advantage of collective translation is that it can guarantee the accuracy of the translation. Secondly, the 72 translators are not Greek, they are Jews in Jerusalem. Although Greek has become their daily language, they are not in Greece and the non-Greek language environment undoubtedly also has a great influence on them, which leads to affect the quality of translation. In addition, the foothold of their translation is that translation must be accurate. So, some words in translation are old and some sentences are translated straightly, even unlike Greek. However, far from being dismissed as eccentric, The Septuagint holds a special place in the history of translation. Later translations of the Old Testament in different languages such as Latin, Coptic (an ancient Egyptian language) and Ethiopian are based on it. (Tan, 2004:34)

St. Jerome (347–420)

In the late period of the Roman Empire, the ruling class intensified the use of Christianity in order to save the Empire from collapse. In this way, religious translation naturally received more attention and got greater development. It can be said that religious translation at this stage constituted the second climax in the history of western translation. During this period, the more influential figures in the field of translation were St. Jerome and St. Augustine.

St. Jerome was one of the four leading theologians of the early Western Christian Church and was considered the most learned of the Roman priests. He loved Latin literature and had a great interest in Greek religious culture. He praised highly the ideas of the Greek theologian Origenes. He translated 14 of his sermons. But Jerome was best known for his translation of the Bible, Vulgate. It was a great success. It ended the confusion of Latin translations of the Bible and gave Latin readers the first “standard” translation of the Bible, which later became the only text recognized by the Roman Catholic Church. To some extent, it even replaced the Hebrew and Greek ones and became the basis for many later translators in European countries to translate the Bible. (Delisle, 1995: 101)

Jerome was not only an excellent translator, but also an outstanding translation theorist. In hundreds of prefaces and letters, Jerome set forth his mature thoughts on translation. During his lifetime, he had put forward some contradictory views on literal translation and free translation. In his early years, he advocated free translation. He cited some examples to support his point of view. For instance, he cited John Mark’s handling of translation. There was a paragraph in The Gospel of Mark that told the story of Jesus evoking a little girl who was ill. The original Hebrew phrase was “Ali that kumi” (little girl, get up), but John Mark translated it into Greek as “little girl, I tell you, get up.” Jerome thought that Mark had understood the tone of the command in Jesus’ words, and that it was all right to translate it literally rather than originally. It can be seen that Jerome realized that different languages are different from each other in terms of diction style, expression habit, syntax and so on. So it was not suitable to adopt the “word for word” translation method, but should adopt free translation following the principle of flexibility. But in the later years, in The Letter to Pammachius, Jerome made clear the differences in translation between religious and non-religious texts. “I will freely confess that I have never translated Greek word for word, but meaning for meaning, except the Bible where word order is divine and mysterious.” Therefore, he believed that in literary translation, translators could and should adopt an easy-to-understand style to convey the meaning of the original text. In religious translation, free translation was not always adopted, but literal translation should be mainly adopted. It can be seen that his later viewpoint was a revision and an enrichment of his earlier viewpoint. Finally, he regarded the relationship between literal translation and free translation as a “complementary” relationship. He admitted that he sometimes adopted free translation and sometimes literal translation. And in some cases, he would integrate the two methods to pursue a better translation. (Jerome, 2007: 25–26)

Jerome’s translation principles and methods have exerted a great influence on later translation theories and practices, especially in the translation of the Bible during the Middle Ages. Many of his theories, such as “style is an inseparable part of content”, have been inherited and developed.

St. Augustine (354–430)

Augustine was a Christian theologian and philosopher in the Roman Empire. Augustine was born in Thagaste, a small town in the Numidian mountains of North Africa. At that time, the city was part of the Roman Empire. Thagaste was originally a closed and monocultural town. But during the Roman Empire, a large number of immigrants poured in, making Thagaste gradually developed into a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural city. Augustine's father was a public servant in Thagaste. His family did not have much property and his father was keen on public charity, so he enjoyed a certain social status. However, his father was lazy, bad-tempered and had constant scandals. This had a great impact on Augustine’s growth and his attitude towards life. His mother was a devout Christian. She often induced Augustine to understand Christianity and even believe in Christianity, which was closely related to Augustine’s later philosophical achievements and even his eventual conversion to Christianity. The good educational environment in Rome laid a solid foundation for Augustine’s education. He studied Greek and Roman literature. His famous works were De Civitate Dei, Confessiones and De doctrina christiana. (Tan, 2004: 79)

Augustine played a very important role in the history of western translation. His discussion on translation was mainly found in his book De doctrina christiana. Augustine explained his views on some aspects of translation. When talking about translation, Augustine recognized that translation was not always a “dictation”, but that there were also the transcendent wisdom of God, the personal understanding and interpretation of man in it. Augustine once wrote: “the Bible, as a remedy for the terrible disease of the human will, was originally written in the same language so that it might spread throughout the world. But later it was translated into various languages, a remedy known to all nations. One studied it to find out the will of the minds of those authors, and through them to find the will of God.” This shows that although the language of the translations varies, the will of God is eternal and unchangeable. A careful study and proper understanding of the different translations of the Bible will surely lead to hearing the call of God. Such an exposition of the translation has been taken out of the linguistic dimension and is filled with theological discourse, which is metaphysical. That is, although Augustine affirms the value of translation, what is actually implied is the wisdom of God that is transcendent over translation and language. The Bible is not to be read to understand the will of its author, but to understand the wisdom of God through the text. The original, the translation, and the wisdom of God must be viewed separately, and the translation is only a proven way of understanding God’s will. (Augustine, 2004: 47)

He was also the first to propose that the translation style (plain, elegant and solemn) depends on the requirements of the readers. In his opinion, the translation of enlightenment texts needs simple style; a text glorifying God needs elegance; exhortation and guidance texts require dignified style. His comments played an important role in the later generations and had a profound influence on translation studies. Therefore, he was regarded as the founder of the linguistic school in the history of western translation.

Conclusion

From the heyday of the Roman Empire to the fall of the Roman Empire, translation had gone through more than 700 years, during which there had been two major stages of the development of translation. In the first stage, it was mainly the Romans who translated Greek classics on a large scale, especially Homer's epics and plays. Translation activities in this stage promoted the emergence and development of Roman literature and played an important role as a bridge for later European countries to inherit ancient Greek culture. The second stage was the large-scale religious translation stage, which was the translation of the Bible and other theological works. At this stage, religious translation surpassed secular literary translation and gradually became the mainstream of western translation.

The earliest studies on translation theories and methods in the West can also be traced back to this period. Although some translation theories are sporadic, scattered and not systematic, they have a lot of insights on translation and have influenced subsequent translation theories. For example, Cicero explicitly put forward the problem of literal translation and free translation. Writers and translators began to discuss about this problem, and later formed the school of free translation represented by Cicero and Horace as well as the school of literal translation represented by Augustine and the school of both free translation and literal translation represented by Jerome. With the decline of the Roman Empire, western translation gradually turned into a low tide and transferred to the Middle Ages.

In addition to the historical study of ancient western translation, this thesis also aims to make readers understand the importance of translation history. Translation itself is a cross-cultural communication activity, reducing or even dredging communication barriers between different languages and regions. The development of translation activities can accelerate and promote the development of human civilization. Translation history is indispensable in translation studies. It is the testimony of the origin of translation activities and the record of their development. People should pay attention to the study of the history of translation and constantly explore its implications. The research results of translation history can provide a clear direction for translation studies and promote the further development of translation activities.--Zhong Yulu (talk) 13:25, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

From the heyday of the Roman Empire to the fall of the Roman Empire, translation had gone through more than 700 years, during which there had been two major stages of the development of translation. In the first stage, it was mainly the Romans who translated Greek classics on a large scale, especially Homer's epics and plays. Translation activities in this stage promoted the emergence and development of Roman literature and played an important role as a bridge for later European countries to inherit ancient Greek culture. The second stage was the large-scale religious translation stage, which was the translation of the Bible and other theological works. At this stage, religious translation surpassed secular literary translation and gradually became the mainstream of western translation. The earliest studies on translation theories and methods in the West can also be traced back to this period. Although some translation theories are sporadic, scattered and not systematic, they have a lot of insights on translation and have influenced subsequent translation theories. For example, Cicero explicitly put forward the problem of literal translation and free translation. Writers and translators began to discuss about this problem, and later formed the school of free translation represented by Cicero and Horace as well as the school of literal translation represented by Augustine and the school of both free translation and literal translation represented by Jerome. With the decline of the Roman Empire, western translation gradually turned into a low tide and transferred to the Middle Ages. In addition to the historical study of ancient western translation, this thesis also aims to make readers understand the importance of translation history. Translation itself is a cross-cultural communication activity, reducing or even dredging communication barriers between different languages and regions. The development of translation activities can accelerate and promote the development of human civilization. Translation history is indispensable in translation studies. It is the testimony of the origin of translation activities and the record of their development. People should pay attention to the study of the history of translation and constantly explore its implications. The research results of translation history can provide a clear direction for translation studies and promote the further development of translation activities. Corrected by--Zhong Yifei (talk) 12:20, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

References

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