El 30 de septiembre, la Iglesia católica celebra el día de san Jerónimo de Estridón, doctor de la Iglesia y santo patrono de los traductores. A finales del siglo IV de nuestra era, san Jerónimo dedicó cuarenta años a traducir la Biblia del hebreo y del griego al latín; y, en 1546, el Concilio de Trento declaró que su versión latina, llamada Vulgata, era la versión auténtica de la Biblia.
En 1991, la Federación Internacional de Traductores (FIT) proclamó que el 30 de septiembre sería también en adelante el Día Internacional de la Traducción, de modo que ahora lo festejamos por igual los traductores católicos o no de todo el mundo. Para festejarlo, el año pasado pedí a un puñado de traductores de habla hispana ―de ayer y de hoy― unas palabras sobre el noble arte de la traducción; en esta ocasión, hago el mismo pedido a un puñado de traductores de lengua inglesa:
Cary Edmond (1883-1943): «Translators live off the differences between languages, all the while working toward eliminating them».
Ronald Knox (1888-1957): «Words are not coins, dead things whose value can be mathematically computed. You cannot quote an exact English equivalent for a French word, as you might quote an exact English equivalent for a French coin. Words are living things, full of shades of meaning, full of associations; and, what is more, they are apt to change their significance from one generation to the next. The translator who understands his job feels, constantly, like Alice in Wonderland trying to play croquet with flamingoes for mallets and hedgehogs for balls; words are forever eluding his grasp».
Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991): «Translation is the essence of modern civilization».
George Steiner (1909-2020): «Without translation we would inhabit in parishes bordering on silence».
Geoffrey Willans (1911-1958): «You can never understand one language until you understand at least two».
Peter Newmark (1916-2011): «Medical translation can be as complex, challenging, and difficult as any other kind of translation».
«There is no such thing as a perfect, ideal or “correct” translation. A translator is always trying to extend his knowledge and improve his means of expression; he is always pursuing facts and words».
Henry Fischbach (1921-2008): «Translation has been the key to scientific progress, and that has allowed inventors and researchers to have access to the innovative thinking of its predecessors, even though that thought has been made in another language. […] Translation has indeed been the great pollinator of science».
Alberto Manguel (n. 1948): «The ideal reader is the translator. He is able to dissect the text, peel back the skin, slice down to the marrow, follow each artery and each vein and then set on its feet a whole sentient being».
Scott. L. Montgomery (n. 1951): «Translation is involved at every level of knowledge production and distribution in the sciences».
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