Translation from the Other Side: Process before Product or "In Defense of Lost Causes". Issue 2 (August 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Towner, Philip H.
• Is Part Of: Bible translator. Volume 69:Issue 2(2018)
• Page Start: 150
• Page End: 165
• Publication Date: 2018-08
• Subjects: metaphors for translation -- anthropology of translation -- translation as process; 220.405
• DOI: 10.1177/2051677018785420
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2051-6770

Abstract

In Western scholarship, descriptions of translation have emphasized instrumentality and outcome, leaving one to wonder where the translator as human being is in this product-oriented field. Bible translation is equally affected by this tendency. In fact, recent developments affecting the Bible translation mission, including an infusion of funding which comes with a focus on technology and the expectation of increased speed to product, make questions about the translator and translation as process all the more acute. This essay suggests that a perspective on translation has been lost or obscured, and seeks to look at translation "from the other side"—the side of anthropology, which allows translation to be (re)considered as a serious human endeavor, a feature of human life-in-movement, a meaningful and meaning-making process.