刘胜楠: Western translation history in the Middle Ages

Key words

The Middle Ages; Translation History; Manlius Boethius; The Toledo School of Translation; Ethnic Languages

Abstract

Looking at the whole Middle Ages, the study of western translation theory was still not systematic. Particularly, the study of translation theory was almost stagnant for a long time after Manlius Boethius put forward the viewpoint of objectivism and pragmatism that paid more attention to practice than theory. Later, the theoretical problems of translation gradually attracted attention mainly in English, German and other national languages. On the one hand, translators repeated the views of Cicero, Horace and Jerome in ancient times; On the other hand, they launched a series of debates on the development direction of national language around the problems of literal translation and free translation, and put forward some new opinions. These opinions can be summarized into two points: (1) translation must strictly imitate the language style and grammar of the Latin original text. In this way, the advantages of the original language will be completely transferred to the target language, and then the target language (referring to the “underdeveloped” national language) will be as elegant and beautiful as Latin. (2) Translation must respect the natural rules of the target language and use the popular spoken language among the people, because only such a language form could be accepted by the people. Translators never agreed on these two opposing views. In Germany, the first view was more popular; In Britain, people generally agree with the second view; In France, Italy, Spain, Russia and other countries, the focus of the debate was not very clear because the contradiction between national languages was not very prominent. In a sense, the translation practice and theoretical research in western countries did not make a real leap until the Renaissance.

摘要

综观整个中世纪，西方翻译理论研究仍是没有系统的。特别是在波伊提乌发表了重实践不重理论的客观主义和实用主义的观点之后,翻译理论研究在较长时间里几乎处于停顿状态。后来,主要在英语、德语等民族语言里，翻译的理论问题才又逐渐引起重视。翻译家们一方面重复古代西塞罗、贺拉斯、哲罗姆的观点，一方面又围绕直译与意译的问题，就民族语言的发展方向展开了一系列的争论,并提出了某些新的见解。这些见解归纳起来，主要有两点:(1)翻译必须严格模仿拉丁原文的语言风格和文法。这样做,原文语言的优点就会全盘移人译文语言，进而促使译文语言(指“不发达”的民族语)像原文拉丁语一样高雅优美。(2) 翻译必须尊重译文语言的自然规则,使用百姓中流行的口语,因为只有这样的语言形式才能为人民大众所接受。对于这两个互相对立的观点，翻译家们不曾取得也不可能取得一致的意见。在德国,第一种观点较为流行;在英国,人们普遍赞成第二种观点;在法国、意大利、西班牙、俄罗斯等其他国家,由于有关民族语的矛盾不很突出，因此争论的焦点不甚明确。从某种意义上说，西方各国的翻译实践和理论研究,直至文艺复兴时期才出现真正的飞跃。

1.Introduction

The Middle Ages is an intermediate period of the three traditional divisions of European history—classical era, Middle Ages and modern times. Generally speaking, Middle Ages ranges from the decline and fall of Western Roman Empire in A.D. 476 to the demise of the Eastern Roman Empire in A.D. 1453. Until quite recently, the Middle Ages were perceived as an era of darkness, ignorance, and superstition, but it didn’t mean that translation career in that special period was stagnant.

From the time of the Roman Empire to the early Middle Ages, the Church held an absolute dominant position in culture, education, philosophy, literature and art, as well as the entire spiritual field. Therefore, the interpretation and translation of the Bible and other religious works were further strengthened. In order to preach, they began to translate religious texts orally in German, and the first German translation of the Bible appeared around 800 AD, which is also known as the earliest Language in German. At the end of the Middle Ages, with the establishment of national states in Europe, national regions were gradually demarcated, national demands were increasingly strong, and national languages were formed one after another. Therefore, large-scale translation in the national language began to appear in the late Middle Ages, and some translations even became the first batch of literary materials in the national language. Martin Luther (1483-1546), a religious reformer, followed the will of the people and adopted the people's language. He translated and published the first "people's bible" from 1522 to 1534, making it possible for anyone who could read to study the bible by himself, independent of the church and its priests. It opened a new era in the development of modern German. The publication of the King James Bible in 1611 marked another great development in the history of English translation. It is called "king James" because 47 scholars began translating it in 1607 at the behest of king James to replace the English version used for liturgical reading. The King James Bible is beautiful in style, sonorous in reading, with a "rhyme" flavor and strong literary character.

In the incipient stage of the Middle Ages, most countries founded in the wreck of the Western Roman Empire had neither made up their own languages nor had annals. Hence, Latin remained the major language for translation and composition. Boethius was the focal point of the translation field in the incipient stage of Middle Ages. The cultural exchange between the East and the West had a long history, among which the mutual translation of Arab and Western works was the earliest. Arabic works poured into Spain in the middle of the 11th century. Toledo became the "Translation Institute" in Europe, translating a large number of Greek works from Arabic into Latin.

2. Literature Review

Previous researchers sought to tease out the history of translation in the Middle Ages from different perspectives. Tan Zaixi, a noted scholar in studying translation theories, pointed out in his masterpiece, A Short History of Translation in the West, that there are three remarkable events in Western translation history, that is, translator Manlius Boethius (480? -524?), the Toledo School of Translators and the translation of ethnic languages. (Tan Zaixi, 2004) Gu Jiawei regarded the Toledo School of Translators as a hub for Medieval cultural exchanges. (Gu, 2020:82)

3.The Translation History before the Middle Ages

Western ancient translation (excluding the ancient Assyrian Empire, Babylonian kingdom and the Translation of the Old Testament) from the height of the Roman Empire to the fall of the Roman Empire, has gone through more than 700 years, during which there appeared two major stages of development. In the first stage, ancient Greek literature, especially Homer's epic and drama, was introduced to Rome for the first time, which 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. In the second stage, the large-scale religious translation, the translation of the Bible and other theological works gradually achieved the status of parallel with the secular literary translation, and later surpassed the secular literary translation for a long time, becoming the mainstream of western translation.

The earliest studies on translation theories and methods in the West can also be traced back to this period. Early translation methods were largely influenced by the relationship and power balance between Rome and Greece. Later, Cicero explicitly proposed the literal translation and living problems, the writer and translator is around this question for discussion, which has been formed by Cicero, Horace live translation, represented by Philo, Augustine of literal translation, and represented by standing live translation or free translation, literal translation set combination is compromise. There is no denying that no matter what school of people, they have published a lot of insights on the theoretical issues of translation, whose influence has continued to the later periods and even modern times. However, it must also be pointed out that throughout ancient times, the study of translation theory could not be very systematic, and there were no experts or monographs; There are only those which writers and theologians have elaborated in addition to other subjects, or which translators have added in the prologue or postscript to their translations. With the decline of the Roman Empire, western translation gradually turned into a low tide and transferred to the Middle Ages.

4. The Influential Translators and Two Translation Climaxes in the Middle Ages

4.1. The incipient stage in the Middle Ages exemplified by translator Manlius Boethius

Boethius was the most important theologian, politician, philosopher and translator in the Middle Ages. He introduced the basic principles of Aristotle's logic to Western Europe, which caused an upsurge of studying Aristotle's philosophical thought and had a great impact on the academic and theoretical circles in the Middle Ages. His views on translation theory were mainly found in the preface to the translation of Boethius’ s works.

4.2. Two Translation Climaxes

4.2.1 The Stage of Bagdad Translation Center

4.2.2. The Stage of the Toledo School of Translators

The Toledo School of Translators emerged under the background of the “Revendication Movement” of the Christian Kingdom in the northern Spain against Muslim conquerors was originated from the national integration and cultural exchange in the Iberian Peninsula in the Middle Ages. Based on the achievements of the Graeco-Arabic translation movement， the development of the Toledo School of Translators reached its peak twice with the support of archbishop Raymond of Toledo and Alfonso X，coming with a large number of classical translation and original works in the ancient Greece and Rome, and promoting the development and maturity of Castilian language and the formation of the Spanish nation. The translation movement was an important bridge between Arab and Islamic cultures for Western Europe, as well as the bridge between the East and West civilization, also was a promotion for the development of the Renaissance. Taking the cultural phenomenon of Toledo School of Translators as a microcosm, the social scene of religious tolerance, national integration and cross-cultural communication in Spain in the Middle Ages provides inspiration for the realization of multicultural symbiosis under the current globalization. With the establishment of various barbarian countries, ethnic regions were gradually defined, ethnic requirements were becoming increasingly stronger and national languages were formed one after another. During this period, although church writers and monks generally continued to write and translate in Latin, the growing requirements of ordinary people for national language were urgent.

5. Conclusion

References

1. 谭载喜：《西方翻译简史（增订版）》，北京：商务印书馆,2004,33.

2. 谷佳维.托莱多翻译学院：中世纪文化交流的枢纽[J].外国问题研究,2020(03):74-84+119.DOI: 10.16225/j.cnki.wgwtyj.2020.03.010.

Hist Trans EN 1

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