SomeMajorDatesandEventsintheHistoryofTranslation.docVIP

Some Major Dates and Events in the History of Translation by Alex GrossLike many free-lance translators, Alex Gross has led a somewhat unconventional life, accumulating numerous skills, practical experiences, and non-conforming views. He has been translating stage works, newspaper articles, and poetry since 1964, when he first discovered a little-known play by Friedrich Dürrenmatt and was adopted as a translator and dramaturg by the Royal Shakespeare Company in London. He spent 1966-1968 in Berlin under a writer-in-residence grant from the Schiller-Theater and the Berliner-Künstler-Programm. During his twelve years in Europe he also worked for a time as a radio announcer in Spanish and English for Radio Nacional de Espa?a, researched the theatre of many nations, and reported on the turbulent events of the Sixties for a variety of publications. On returning to the States he became one of the first members of the New York Circle of Translators and over a five-year period helped the World Press Review with translating and editing work. His interests soon broadened into linguistics and the feasibility of machine translation, and he took up the study of Chinese when he went back to school to obtain a diploma in Chinese Medicine. He authored the educational chart bencao tubiao: The Healing Herbs of China (seen in the background of the photo above), published in collaboration with a CUNY professor of Chinese. From 1997 to 2000 he presented an annual seminar entitled A Practical View of Translation History for the NYU Translation Studies Program. He also served as Chair of the ATA Public Relations and Special Projects Committees, and his published articles and papers about many of these activities can be found on his website at:  HYPERLINK /  Among these articles, his many pieces on MT have been appearing in the US and Europe since 1987. His most detailed treatment of this subject is probably Limitations of Computers as Translation Tools, in Computers in Tr