Opinion


		Opinion The complete list of questions posed by the editor of Notes On Translation eliciting the opinions of translators and translation consultants.

		In NOT 15:1 the questions were: How do the Gospel writers portray Jesus? How does he project himself as someone to listen to? What kind of emotions does he appeal to or seek to arouse? What kind of reasoning does he use to convince hearers? How do the Gospels in your own language portray Jesus? How are you portraying Jesus through the Gospels in a language you are currently translating into? In NOT 15:2 the questions were: How does the recognition of irony and sarcasm in the Letters to Corinth aid us in understanding Paul himself, as well as what he was saying to Christians in Corinth? What steps have been taken to identify irony and sarcasm in a translation you are working on or have used? In NOT 15:3 the questions were about assumptions. Existing assumptions in the receptor community which are different from those the biblical writer assumed are partly responsible for difficulties in understanding a translated passage correctly. For example, when the Sadducees confront Jesus with their question about the marriage relationships of the woman who had been married seven times (Matt 22:23-33; Mark 12:18-27; Luke 20:27-40), many communities assume that the woman's childlessness and the death of her successive husbands are clear evidence of witchcraft. Has a community you know of assumed that witchcraft was involved? Have other existing assumptions affected receptors' understanding of this passage? What can translators do in such cases, where the problem arises from conflicting assumptions, not a simple absence of background information?