constructing pathways to translation - Higher Education Commission

a domain dominated by mimesis, but rather one by what Benjamin describes as the
‘kinship’ of languages – kinship involves the essence of language, not a mimetic
relationship made possible by the commonality of language. The task of the translator,
then, is to make sense of the idea of ‘kinship’of languages, be it philosophical or
historical.
The movement from ‘the language of things to the language of knowledge’, takes place
via translation – and there will be, as Benjamin indicates, as many translations as there
are languages or authors and translators. This also provides the reason for this plurality.
Within the plurality of natural languages, meanings are in a state of flux, and this is a
state that can be overcome in the harmony of all the modes of intention. The ontologicotemporal
structure of language in Benjamin’s treatment of translation, has been described
by Johnson (2003:61) as:
Fragments of a vessel that are to be glued together, must match one another in the
smallest details, although they would not be like one another. In the same way, a
translation, instead of imitating the sense of the original, must lovingly and in
detail, incorporate the original’s way of meaning, thus making both the original
and the Translation recognizable as fragments of a greater Language, just as
fragments are parts of a vessel.
Benjamin (1989:86-108) in his description of the translator’s task with reference to the
possibility of ‘pure language’ thus holds: “It is the task of the translator to release in his
own language that pure language which is under the spell of another, to liberate the
language imprisoned in the work in his re creation of that work”.
1.5 TOWARDS CONTEMPORARY TRANSLATION THEORY:
20 TH -21 ST CENTURIES
Traditionally, Literary Translation was promoted in universities in the 1960s by the
Translation Workshop concept, which was initiated by I.A. Richard’s Reading Workshop
and Practical Criticism approach that began in the 1920s, and other later Creative
Writing Workshops. These later translation workshops were intended as a platform for
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