“Translation”, wrote Anthony Burgess, “is not a matter of words only: it is a matter of making intelligible a whole culture.” In making intelligible the cultures of other tongues, translators have shaped the culture and history of the English-speaking world. No book has influenced British life more than the King James Bible — the most famous of English translations and the greatest work of literature ever written by committee. The Iliad, The Odyssey and The Arabian Nights are part of the nation’s cultural inheritance, yet few native English speakers now read ancient Hebrew, classical Greek or Arabic — or, for that matter, any other foreign language. These works have been absorbed by generations through the efforts of translators.
The understated art of translation will be recognised this evening at the Times Literary Supplement’s Translation Prizes. The translators of seven books published in English last year, each out of a different language, will be honoured. The paradox of their work is that successful translators pass unnoticed. A good English translation will read as if the book were written in English in the first place. A translation that is clumsy or stilted will scream its presence.
