Journal of Translation
Issue 11(1)
Journal of Translation 11(1) (2015)
Editor's Comments
In this issue of the Journal of Translation we have three excellent articles and two short notes. The article on “A Religious Ethics of Translation” by Alan Wolf continues a theme we have had in this journal on the ethics of translation. According to my own understanding of what Wolf is saying, the ethics of translation essentially amounts to “speak the truth in love.” The articles on “The Samaritan Woman in John 4” by Ronnie Sim and “Translating and Exegeting Hebrew Poetry” by Christian Locatell are similar in that they both are very detailed, long and...
John 4 is usually believed to portray a woman who is morally disreputable and socially marginal. The paper challenges this popular view, showing that the assumptions on which it is based are less secure than commonly thought, questioning a bridging reference, pointing out a word-play in the text built around the two contextual senses of ἀνήρ, and re-reading the text within an expanded and nuanced context of assumptions that were accessible to 1st century readers. This offers a more positive reading which should caution Bible interpreters and translators against relying on their initial...
Biblical Hebrew (BH) poetry poses unique challenges to translators and exegetes because of its often complex textual development, its defamiliarized mode of communication, and its understudied relationship to its co-text. While a comprehensive analysis is welcomed for any discourse type, the unique challenges of BH poetry call for a holistic approach that marshals insights from the extra-linguistic setting, co-text, and multifaceted discourse features. The method of discourse analysis proposed by Wendland (1994) seems to provide a helpful framework for such investigation. Applying this...
Our understanding of ethics in the field of translation studies shows a secular bias which has distorted our moral vision. This article examines recent accounts of the role of ethics when communication is translated by interpreters and translators. Rather than relying on professional codes or relativist approaches, the potential value in adopting a religious perspective to our understanding of ethics is underlined, reclaiming the spiritual dimension of moral action and reconceptualising notions of the Other, power and ideology in translation. Examples are given from the literature in the...