Translators are hyper-intelligent beings - here's why
Why our society needs to value, nurture and encourage translations
I was in conversation with a publisher friend of mine and she seemed curious about two particular words - beimaan and gaddar. These are Hindi words etymological sourced from Urdu and in analogy Arabic and while these words are very common place for someone who is a native Hindi speaker, I realised that the contet in which we use these words and those on the internet (curated by people, I’m assuming, who are non-Hindi speakers) there was a huge disconnect.
The first ever translation that the world saw was of the translation of Hebrew Bible into Greek. At that time, the detached Jews had forgotten their inherited language, Hebrew, and therefore, to make it easier for them, the Bible was translated into the Greek language. This translation was given the name of Septuagint as there were a total of seventy translators working on this project. Each translator used to work in his own cell by being confined. The Septuagint, later, was even translated into Coptic, Latin, Georgian, Armenian, and several other languages.
A translator, their art, and their skill have thus been given utmost priority because without them we would not know the world as it is, we would be divided furthermore on the basis of our religion, our ideals, and the world would be full of people who were essentially alien to one another.
While the Septuagint is not the best ever translation of the bible it has historically established the honour and prestige of the role of a translator in our cultural evolution.
I’m in honest awe of translators and how they manage to understand another tongue by that I don’t mean just the sound and the grammar but also how people who speak that tongue feel, relate and think in that tongue. This is a super human quality, something that we desperately need when our world leaders do nothing but divide us.
With the blessing of several independent publishers who have recognized the need and the power of translations, I’m hopeful that for years to come - our younger audiences will turn to translations when the want to learn more about the world and its wonders.