Translation: Theory and Practice: A Historical Reader
Book review
May 30, 2009
Book Reviews
12 Comments
Translation: Theory and Practice: A Historical Reader, edited by Daniel Weissbort and Astradur Eysteinsson, is a collaboration with a dozen scholars who either contributed new translations or edited portions of this over 625 page tome.
After a general introduction and discussion of the Tower of Babel, which the editors describe as “a kind of leitmotif of this volume”, Translation is divided into Parts I and II.
Part I covers from antiquity to modern times, sectioned into Cicero to Caxton; Reformation and Renaissance to the Eighteenth Century; and the Nineteenth Century. Each segment is complete with introduction and biographies devoted to notable scholars of influence on the development of translation theories and practice throughout the ages.
Part II, the Twentieth Century, is partitioned into From Pound to Nabokov and Recent and Contemporary Writings with, once again, introductions and biographies.
Translation is not only the most comprehensive amassment of material regarding the evolvement of translation, it also includes actual translations of passages from the Bible and Homer from different eras to demonstrate the variety of translation approaches which emerged over history.
Translation is invaluable as both a teaching tool and encyclopedia. The collection contained within Translation proves itself as the must have resource for scholars, poets, cultural historians, professional and student translators and disciples of English literature.
Daniel Weissbort, born in London in 1935, is well known for his translations and anthologies of Russian and Eastern European poetry. He studied at the University of Cambridge. He relocated to the United States in 1970, where he taught for almost 30 years at the University of Iowa, until his return to England in 1999. He founded, along with Cambridge colleague Ted Hughes, the journal “Modern Poetry in Translation” in 1965. The journal continues to this date. Since his return to England, he has written poetry, taught, lectured and published Translation.
Astradur Eysteinsson, born in Akranes, Iceland, in 1957, studied at the Universities of Iceland, Warwich and Cologne. He completed his PhD in Comparative Literature at the University of Iowa. He became a practicing translator in 1981. He has been a Professor and Chair of the University of Iceland’s Comparative Literature. In addition, he was a Visiting Professor at the Universities of Iowa and Copenhagen in Translation Studies.
A preview of Translation: Theory and Practice: A Historical Reader can be accessed at Google Books
