Translation in 21st century: The Global Context

Farzana khan

The University of Lahore

Pakistan

While researching on translation studies I came to know that Modern translation is gaining a

highly prestigious status in 21st century. Globalization has triggered the need for

interdisciplinary translation studies for bridging the gulfs among nations, cultures ,languages and

more importantly” people”. Historically, translation has its origin in religion when ancient people

used it to make the text of religious scriptures fathomable for lay men. The science of translation

kept on evolving and passed through different phases. In later half of 20th century it took

academicians by a storm and carved out a new discipline for itself. However with the dawn of

21st century myriad developments occur in this field as it has vast scope to accept new

dimensions.

1. GLOBALIZATION AND TRANSLATION

the cultures. As a matter of fact no one today can claim to be a complete Asian, European or

even American. Social media and especially electronic media have reduced the cultural

differences among People.TV programs, movies and talk shows have been driver of the change.

For instance an American reality TV show ‘American idol’ was replicated by an Indian

Television channel and was rebranded as ‘Indian Idol’. This radical transformation has also

affected the field of translation. Canadian and Brazilian translation theorists have influenced the

contemporary translators. One focuses on literal meaning of the original text and takes help from

etymology when translating while other compromises etymology and literal meaning of the text
to make it more understandable for the native readers; to make it fathomable special care is taken

of the native cultures, traditions and their vocabulary (Das).

2. CULTURE AND TRANSLATION

Today the translation is the study of culture and language. Culture has gained paramount

importance in Translation studies because the translation of SL text exerts greater influence

upon the society of target Language that’s why it has become important for the translator to keep

in mind the cultures of both the Source and target language while translating a text. The move

from translation as a text to Translation as a culture came when Susan Bassnett and Andre

Lefevere rejected the previous notions of translation and focused on the interaction between

translation and culture. Today the importance of culture in translation has increased manifold and

the scholars of Translation have realized the importance of culture in translation.

Marry Snell Hornby defines Translation as an interaction between two cultures on the other

hand Lefevere and Bassnett also stressed on the importance of culture in Translation, according

to them the students of Translation not only deal with two text rather they have to deal with the

cultures that influence their production .

Today translation is playing an important role in cultural and identity formation so translation

has become not only the interaction between communities and nations in this globalized village

but also an important source of culture interaction.

Translation passed through a long process of evolution first as ‘carry-over of meaning’ next as

linguistic activity and today it has been accepted as intercultural activity and is identical to

culture so in 21st century Translation is viewed as transformation and transposition of culture and
is not mere the imitation of the original. It has evolved as a discipline and the use of translation

has become paramount important in the study of comparative literature.

In 21st century the translation has been a main dynamism in the progress of world culture so

today comparative study cannot be taken place without regard to translation.

In this globalized world the originality of cultures is fading away as the world has become a

global village so the barriers of the cultures are eliminating and the process of transmission and

transfusion has reached at its zenith so Translation in 21st century has become process of

mediation between two cultures.

Alejandra Patricia Karamanian in his article “Translation and Culture” writes:

“Multiculturalism which is a present day phenomenon, plays a role here, because it has had an

impact on almost all peoples worldwide as well as on the international relations emerging from

the current new world order .Moreover, as technology develops and grows at a hectic pace,

nations and their cultures have, as a result, started a merging process whose end is difficult to

predict. We are at the threshold of a new international paradigm”. While concluding his article

the author stresses on the importance of culture in translation in these words “The transcoding

process should be focused not merely on language transfer but also –and most importantly-on

cultural transposition……..translators must be both bilingual and bicultural if not multicultural”

3. THE ROLE OF TRANSLATOR IN 21st CENTURY

As the demand of translation has soared manifold in this globalized world so the role of

translator has become more important. Today the translator has gained the status of creator so he

has to compete with the emerging challenges of 21st century, for this purpose he must be well
equipped with translation tools; well aware of the needs of translation in any particular country

and he must has an insight into the cultures of both the languages along with all the

aforementioned characteristics his linguistic competence is prerequisite. Translator is actually a

mediator between two cultures that’s why it has been said that he must be bilingual and

bicultural if not multicultural.

“A translator is not necessarily bound to the original he chooses; he can make his own poem out

of it, if he likes, and that is what is generally done” (Das). So the translator has gained a highly

status. He is a reader, interpreter and a creator so in this sense the translator has become a

creative writer so in order to perform his duties successfully he must be well aware of the

cultures of both languages text and must gain the linguistic competency. Frederic Houbert in his

article ‘Translators on the Eve of The 21st Century’ which published in Translation Journal in

July1999 writes that a translator has curiosity ,in addition a translator of today must update his

linguistic skills on a continuous basis and he need to make sure his computer literacy.

Globalization is symbiotic with technological development which presents a major challenge to

the translators in order to compete with these challenges the strong IT background has become

pre requisite for a freelance translator. So keeping abreast of technological evolution has become

inevitable for the survival of the translator in 21st century.

When a translator goes for the literary translation he must be well conversant with the literature

of the both source and target text in this way he will be able to perform his duty successfully.

Faithfull literary translation is not an easy task because various socio cultural terms can’t be

rendered into other languages so in such case he has to go for transliteration and free translation

while translating a literary text he must keep in his mind the three points translation,

transliteration and trans- creation. Today our translator is doing translation in two ways first as
he is translating the foreign text into his mother language secondly, he is also translating his

mother language text into the foreign language, in that case the mother language becomes the

source language and the foreign language target language, now it’s all upon the translator to

make his translation to look and read like the original in order to maintain his high credibility in

the 21st century.

After reading much about the role of translator I would like to say that translator is playing a

significant role in the 21st century as he is a mediator between nations and he is a linguistic

bridge-builder.it is the translator who is making literary text available in the target language. It

would not be exaggeration to say that a translator combines in him the role of writer and a critic,

so a translator is a creator in 21st century.

4. SIGNIFICANCE OF TRANSLATION IN 21ST CENTURY AND ITS

FUTURE

The significance of Translation has increased manifold in 21st century; the internet has

facilitated the communication system which has further enhanced its importance. At national

level Translation has become an important source of national integration in all over the world

while at international level it has become more important for the promotion and identification of

a nation. In this globalized village a nation cannot survive in isolation so it needs communication

which is not possible without translation so its Significance has increased as it is very important

for promoting bilateral relations with other countries. Its significance can be gauged from the

point that nations having different languages can’t communicate with one another without the

help of translator. At UNO and all other international organizational meetings the need of

translator is indispensable. The address of the leaders are translated into other languages to make
worldwide fathomable. Its significance also lies in the fact that it is playing the role of linguistic

bridge-building as different peoples having different languages require translation for the

purpose of communication and sharing their knowledge. Bijay Kumar das writes: “Translation

acts as a kind of linguistic-bridge building between two languages and culture”.

In this world of globalization translation promoting the culture and literature of one nation into

the other nation and even all over the world a case in point is the HAIDER movie of Bollywood,

the whole plot of this movie has been taken from Shakespeare’s drama Hamlet. The Chinese

book ‘The Art Of War’ has been translated into English which is being widely read in Pakistan

and various other countries in this way globalization has enabled the translation to move freely

from one country to other and translation has become a source of sharing knowledge in all over

the world. Translation is also very important for the propagation of religion. A case in point is

the religion of Christianity which has become the world largest religion because Christians has

adopted the source of translation for the propagation of their religion. Similarly the Islam is

spreading rapidly because the 21st century has made the easy accessibility to translated religious

text.

Translation is necessary not only for the popularity but also for the survival of the original text,

without Translation the original will die a natural death. The masterpiece of literature of 14th

century is still surviving in 21st century only due to translation. The work of Chaucer, specially

the Canterbury tales is a case in point. The work of Shakespeare has been translated into all

living languages that is why it is still surviving and is widely read all over the world. Similarly

the work of Iqbal has been translated into other languages such as ‘ Asrar-e-khudi’ and ‘ Javeed

Nama’ has been translated into English which has made these masterpieces immortal . The

aforementioned significance of translation reflects how much the future of translation is bright!
All over the world many organizations are working for promoting translation and enhancing its

scope.

CONCLUSION

From examining the articles and books on Translation I can say that the 21st century is a century

of Translation because today translation has been taken not only as new writing but also as

literature three, it has gained an independent status by law as current theorists denounced the

previously accepted notion of original being primary and translation as secondary. Today

translation has been assigned an independent status of creative writing. It is playing prominent

role in bridging the gulfs among Literatures of various nations and promoting

Intercommunication among human beings for their benefits.The future of translation is very

bright as its demand is soaring day by day at international level.

Work Cited

Jeremy Munday. Introducing Translation Studies ;Routledge, 2001.Print

Edwin Gentzler .Contemporary Translation Theories ; Routledge, 1993.Print

Bijay Kumar Das.A Handbook Of Translation Studies ; Atlantic Publishers & Dis,2005.Print

Susan Bassnett .Translation, history, and culture ; Printer Publisher, 1990.Print

Alejandra Patricia Karamanian .Translation and Culture; Translation Journal ,2001.Print

Frédéric Houbert. The Challenges of Being a Translator on the Eve of the 21st Century;Translation
Journal,1998.Print