Translations on the phone

Prof. A K M Adam akm.adam at ptsem.edu
Fri Nov 6 13:19:01 EST 1998


Friends,

It is probably too irritatingly postmodern-hermeneutical of me, but I beg
your indulgence to suggest that we should beware the notion that there's
something *in* a text such that a translation performs an operation on that
inner something, resulting in loss or adulteration.

>"Two things happen in translation.  Something in the
>original text gets lost, and something not in the original 
>gets added."

I hasten to add that I agree with the *sentiment* wholeheartedly, and I
don't mind using the metaphor for metaphorical purposes. It's just the
perilous effect of taking a metaphor as a precise description of the ways
textuality works that makes me uneasy.

And now I'll wait for the founding of B-HERMENEUTICS before I go further
down this murky road (on a dark and stormy night--sorry, no girlfriends, I'm
spoken for).

Grace and peace,
Akma Adam
akm.adam at ptsem.edu
Princeton Theological Seminary

"Violent zeal for truth hath an hundred to one odds to be either petulancy,
ambition, or pride."
J. Swift


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