The_Task_of_the_Translator.ppt

The Task of the Translator Walter Benjamin Translated by Harry Zohn Source: Schulte, R. and J. Biguenet. 1992. (eds.). Theories of Translation. University of Chicago Press Exercise We sometimes fall in with persons who have seen much of the world, and of the man who, in their day, have played a conspicuous part in it, but who generalize nothing, and have no observation, in the true sense of the word. They abound in information in detail, curious and entertaining, about men and things; and, having lived under the influence of no very clear or settled principle, religious or political, they speak of every one and everything, only as so many phenomena, which are complete in themselves, and lead to nothing, not discussing any truth, or instructing the hearer, but simply talking. No one would say that these persons, well informed as they are, had attained to any great culture or intellect or to philosophy. （Cardinal Newman） Note: Cardinal Newman was a well-known British prelate and theologian. A founder of the Oxford movement, he converted to Roman Catholicism (1845) and was made a cardinal (1879). 纽曼，约翰·亨利（1801-1890）英国高级教士和神学家，牛津运动的创始人之一。他皈依罗马天主教(1845年)并做过红衣主教(1879年)。 牛津运动是19世纪中期由英国牛津大学部分教授发动的宗教复兴运动。该运动主张恢复教会昔日的权威和早期的传统，保留罗马天主教的礼仪。 Life Walter Benjamin, born on July 15, 1892, studied philosophy in Freiburg, Munich, Berlin and Bern. Earning a degree with his Concept of Criticism in German Romanticism, he was not successful in his attempt to become a university professor. His Habilitationsschrift , On the Origins of the German Trauerspiel, was rejected by Frankfurt University only to become a canonized classic of 20th Century literary criticism. Benjamin made his living as a free-lance author and translator in Berlin, where he also took part in progressive German psychopharmacological research. A prolific critic, he was forced into exile by the Nazis in 1933. Emigrating to France, he became a member of the Institute of Social Research (which included Max Horkheimer, T