The law of the translator [Archives:2007/1021/Community]

Muhammed Alba`abani
Faculty of Arts, Ibb University
[email protected]
All of us praise Ibin Almukafa`a translation of the Kalila wa Dimna tales. But this admiration is for the honesty of Ibin Almukafa'a and his skill in adaptation with the requirement of the policy and Arabic expressions. No one went over that in the origin of that book, but all had a look at the text, they admired, and they praised their translators because their illustration for the unknown author. Today, and after thirteen centuries, nothing has been fundamentally changed.

The ignorance for the affection of the translation evokes many questions in which I will mention only one: What is the circumstances of the translators of arts, thinking and knowledge? Those who transmit civilization, what kind of rank are they are occupying? What kind of conditions do they have in their jobs and what rights do they deserve? The real political problem for translation hides with absence of the official description for a translator.

The absence of this description may mean that translation does not require specific conditions, neither in the target language nor in source language nor in the action itself. And every defect in translation should return either to the weakness in the experience of the translator or to his digestion or to his linguistic talent.

So, it has to be said that we do not acknowledge with existence of the translator except when he fails. But who is the responsible for this failure? It is not us who deny his existence and his job, neglect his preparation and protecting him from the pressure of the publisher, the reviewer and the corrector who are desiring – to simplify sentences, approximate the picture as well as to take normal expressions which freeze the language and the taste?

The sufficiency which is lingual, methodologically, specialized and technical. These four necessities do not gather in any other specialization. So, they are useful for the scientific introduction to distinguish the translator.

The official distinguishment which we request for the translator makes him an innovator for the personal glory trough the excellence of translation and the wide knowledge with which he supports his job.

But the innovation needs a legitimate protection lean on the “law of the translation”” which shows his duties as well as his rights. On the other hand