Translation theory

Translation theory in Europe
The first historical stage of development of translation began from Antiquity. From the point of view the problem of literary translation was theoretically put forward Cicero’s, Horatius’ and Quintillion’s statements about the best translation.
Roman poet Quintus Horatius Fluccus (65-8 BC) was against rendering word for word translation. He says a faithful translator should render sense for sense.
Auretius Augustinos (354-430 AD) was a church father, theologian and writer. He says that knowledge of foreign language necessary. A translator very often misses the real sense when his is not very learned. The real sense is not established when translating takes into according to the sense but also syntactical features are simply not acceptable in Latin usage.
Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (35-96 AD) was an orator, a lawyer and a teacher. He writes that Romans express themselves and differ from the Greeks, when they translate they are allowed to avail themselves of the best words.
Falius Caecilius Plinius Secundus (61-112 AD) was a Roman writer and a polymath. He points out that it is very beneficial to translate from Greek into Latin and from Latin into Greek. The vocabulary of both languages is rich. Stylistic figures and resources can be used for further development. The translator does not use the beautiful features of the text.
Liviy Andronic (200-275 AD) was a first translator and founder of Roman literature. The main contribution of his was the translation of Himer’s works into Latin (Odyssey).
Quintus Ennius (239-169 BC) was either a writer or a translator. He knew 3 languages: oxy-his native language, Greek and Latin. Enny translated “Holy history” of Eugereme from Greek into Latin and the poem of Epiharm.
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) was a Roman orator, a philosopher and translator. When he was 16, Cicero translated an astronomical poem of Arat “Phenomena” from Greek. In he was 32, Cicero translated Xenophen’s “Housebuilding”, Plato’s “Pratogora”. Cicero did not like word for word translation. He thought that such translations show the poorness and weakness of the language of the translator. He paid much attention to the meaning of the translation.
In the XI century Irish monk Eriguena translated the works of Prisciana who was a great philosopher of the VI century, of Maxim confessor, of Dionysus Areopagite. Eriguena preferred word for word translation, i.e the accuracy of translation.
Gray Blind, a poet, in his poem “Wolles”, built on the historical material, mentioned that it was translated from Latin and the works of John Blare and Thomas Gray were the basis for him.
Michel Scot worked as a translator out of Scotland. He traveled a lot and even a Pope of Rome was impressed by erudition and perfect knowledge of languages. In the reign of Frediric II, the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of German nation, Michael was busy with the translations from the Arabic language, because the king himself was interested in the culture of Arabians. Frederic encouraged translation activity. Michael also translated Aristotle’s works. Having been in Toledo, he translated Avicena’s “About animals” and some commentary books of Averse.
Alfred (849-901) – King of West-Saxons, was born at Wantage. Alfred’s greatest literary activity lies in the course of 886-893. His chief writings were his translations of Boethius’ “Consolation of Phisophy”, the histories of Bede and Orosious and of the “Pastoral Care” of the Gregory the Great.
In X-XX centuries so many translators were busy with translation activities. They translated into many works from Latin into Greek and from Greek into other Roman-German languages. For examples, Notker (950-1022) translated Aristotle’s works (“Categories”, “Rhetoric”) using Latin words, word combinations, and thw whole sentences, translating them.
The culture heritage of western parts of Roman Empire had a great influence on the extensive regions of Western Europe. Latin was a leading source of communication. Till the XI AD there were many translations from Greek into Latin, then from Latin as well. There were usually the translations of religious literature, works of ancient Greek philosophers and scientists (Aristotle’s works first of all).
In 1167 the Oxford University was founded, and 1209 the Cambridge one was founded too. Receiving the academic degree presupposed a long education, having been continued more than 10 years in a number of cases.
In 1130 a unique event took place in the history of translation, the Toledo Translation School was founded. It was the first school with the official status. Others, founded by Alfred, etc., were not schools, but groups of scientific translators with their leaders.
One of the prominent philosophers of the XIII c. was Roger Bacon (1214 -1294), who touched upon the problems of Grammar, Logics and Philosophy in his works. He thought that one could not interpret a wonderful work into his native language in all its beauty. Because every language has its own specific features that cannot be kept while translating.¹⁰ That’s why Bacon wrote about the necessity of learning foreign languages.