Re: Translations on the phone

From: Prof. A K M Adam (akm.adam@ptsem.edu)
Date: Fri Nov 06 1998 - 13:19:01 EST


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@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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