Translating the Gospels

Abstract

"THIS paper arises from my work as a translator of the Gospels and, farther back, as a translator of Homer. In the course of these tasks I had not only to examine the principles and aims adopted by earlier translators, but to hammer out new principles of my own. Of all literary arts, translation has been the most neglected in the long history of criticism. Yet it has been widely practised ever since the catastrophe at Babel produced a market for its products, and with so many good and bad examples at our disposal it should not prove impossible to establish it on a sound theoretical basis. Matthew Arnold's On Translating Homer stands out as one of the few noteworthy essays on the subject. I make this my startingpoint, if only to emphasise the change of outlook that has occurred since he wrote"