Download - History of Romanian Translation
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The First Romanian
Translations
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Early Translations.
17th century
The Enlightenment
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Present day Romanian has been
influenced by non-Romance lgs such as
Hungarian,
Albanian and
various Slavic lgs spoken in the
neighbouring countries.
Romania switched from the Cyrillic to
the Roman script in 1860.
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Early Translations.
In common with many other lgs, the 1st TRs into Ro were of religious
nature and motivation.
The basic Christian terminology is ofLatin origin,
ex. Dumnezeu from Dominte Deo,
Lord,
boteza from baptizare, baptize,
cruce from crux, cross.
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Between the 10th and 13th centuries,
the lg and the organizational structureof the Slavonic church were officially
adopted in Romania,
signaling the incorporation of Roterritory into the Byzantine sphere of
influence.
This development played a major role
in shaping the Ro culture in
subsequent centuries.
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There is no indication ofwhen and
where it was completed.There are cultural and linguistic
elements
which support placing it in the north
of Transilvania,
for ex. the fact that it contains alarge number of Hungarian
elements.
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Given that Romanian was not a written
lg at the time,
the official lg. being Slavonic in all
contexts,
the 1st RO translations cannot beexplained in terms of internal needs.
These TRs appear to have been driven
by Lutheran and Calvinistic propaganda.
The 1st Ro printed document was a
Lutheran catechism published in Sibiu
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In 1559 Deacon Coresi published
Intrebare crestineasca (TheChristian Inquiry),
the 1st printed Ro translation on
record;
in 1561 he published a RoGospel
and in 1570 a Ro Psalterand a Romissal.
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These TRs enjoyed the support of
the authorities.Prince Zapolya of Transilvania
personally
commissioned the replacement of
Slavonic books by Ro ones.
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17th century
Nicolae Costin (1660-1712) statesmanand historaian
translated Antonio de Guevaras
famous book Reox de Principes (1529)from Latin.
Spatharus Milescu, diplomat, great
scholar,
was the 1st to translate directly from a
Greek original.
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Milescus most important contribution was
translating the Old Testament in full from a
version ofSeptuagint published in Frankfurtin 1551.
The TR appeared in 1688 under
the title Biblia de la Bucuresti and
all Ro versions of the Septuagint have since
been based on it.
The 1st poet translator in the Ro tradition was
Dosoftei, the metropolitan of Moldova.
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The 1st bilingual dictionary with Ro as
the SL was Dictionarum valachio-
latinum.
It contained 5.000 headwords
was compiled by Mihai Halici fromCaransebe in 1643.
Lexicographic activity, combined with
increased involvement in the practicalproblems of translation,
stimulated thinking in this area.
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The lack of perfect correspondence
between words of2 lgs began to be
noted and discussed.
While translating Carte de p ravi le
(Book o f Laws), I. B. Deleanu observed
that there was no exact term for the
German Verbrechen
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and noted that the lack of appropriate
terminology posed a serious difficulty for the
anonymous author ofRetorica.
This close link between practice andtheory
remained the driving force behind
translation studies in
Romania/Moldova down to the present
day.
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The Enlightenment
During the 18th centurywhen the Enlightenment was
beginning to gain ground in Europe,
the governers appointed by the
Ottoman sultan
began to rule in the Romanianprincipalities.
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The principalities
Wallachia, Moldova andTransilvania
went through a rapid process of
secularization during this period,
with translations and adaptations of
popular literature graduallyreplacing those of the religious
works.
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French became the dominant SL
in translation,with writers who expressed the
spirit of the Enlightenment,
such as Voltaire, Rousseau,
being among the most translated.
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The translators were either
educated members of the Ro royalfamily, like Vacarescu and
Iordache Golescu, or
Greek scholars brought in by the
new rulers
to teach at the royal academies inIasi and Bucharest.
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The 1st direct TR from English
was probably ByronsManfred,
translated in 1843 by the Ro
revolutionary and writerC. A. Rosetti.
The 1st English novel to be translatedwas also to become one of the most
popular;
this was Defoes Robinson Crusoe,translated and published by V. Draghici
in Iasi in 1835.
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Ro magazines also carried
the 1st news about the NewWorld during this period and
translations ofAmerican lit-resoon began to appear.
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Washington Irving was the 1st
author to be translated into Ro in 1836,
followed by
Benjamin Franklin,
James Fenimore Cooper,
Edgar Alan Poe
Mark Twain.
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Harriet Beecher Stowes
Uncle Toms Cabin -published inIasi in1853.
The flourishing of translation activity
during the 19th century
had an enduring influence on Ro
cultural life and helped to bring our territory closer
to the rest ofEurope.
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The poet M. Eminescu (1850-89)
was similarly influenced by GermanRomanticism.
His excellent translations of
the Austrian poet Lenau,
B itte (Reques t)and Das du rre Blatt(
The Withered Leaf)were published in Convo rb ir i l i terarein
1879.
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Eminescu created a highly
expressive poetic language,and in so doing made it possible for
TRs into Ro
to stand in their own right
as equals of their European and
American originals.
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The last quarter of the 19th
centurywitnessed an emphasis on
translating works which focus on
social issues.
These included
GogolsThe Inspec to r-General, published
in 1874,
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Turgenevs
The Nest of Genlefolk (1880),Dostoevskys ("
")
Crime and Pun ishment(1898),Chekhovs
Motley Sto r ies (1899). (Pstrye
Rasskazy")
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The contemporary period
During the 1st halfof the 20thcentury,
a number of excellent TRs were
published by scholars
who were established poets in
their own right.
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The poet George Cosbuc
translated from German as well as anumber of other lgs,
including Greek (Homers Odyssey),
Latin (Virgils Aeneid and Georgics),Sanskrit (Rig-Veda), Ramayana and
Mahabharata),
and Italian.
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His translation of
Dantes The Divine Comedywas
considered one of the best existing versions
by C. Tagliavini,
a well-known Italian scholar who had a
special interest in Romanian.
Another Transivanian, St.O. Iosif (1875-
1913),
was considered one of the best translators
ofGerman poetry during this time.
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He translated
Heine, Goethe, Schiller, Burger, andLenau.
He also translated work by theHungarian poet Petofi (The Apostle),
as well as Shakespeares Romeo andJul ietandA Midsummer NightsDream,
the The Iliadand Odysseyweretranslated in perfect hexameters by G.Murnu.
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Other writers translated/ retranslated
during this period include
Jules Verne, Oscar Wilde, M.
Lermontov, Ivan Goncearov, Eugene
ONeil, Mark Twain, Marcel Proustand Balzak.
These Trs- personal affinity and
individual choice on the part oftranslators rather than of official
planning.
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Publishers were mainly interested in
producing lucrative, popular lit-re.
High quality lit-re could also be
successful.
One of the most popular authors duringthis period was W.S.Maugham:
almost 30 of his titles were
translated by the Romanian writer I.
Giurea and
published between 1930-1945.
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TR after World War II
World War II and the years whichfollowed it
brought about a new isolation.
Both original and the translated
lit-re were censored.
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The 1950s witnessed a growing
demand for foreign lit-res,with a definite need for
translations
since the majority of the Romanian
public did not speak foreign lgs.
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Several masterpieces appeared in
excellent TRS during this period.For ex.,
in 1955
2 important works by Goethe
were published;
Faust, translated by the great poetand philosopherLucian Blaga,
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the autobiographical novel
From My L ife. Poetry and Truth, translated by Tudor Vianu, an
outstanding scholar of the time.
TRs of this type were the result of
personal choice.
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Only the Russian classics were
systematically in a series of acomplete works,
including Gogol (1954),
Checkhov (1954-63),
Turgenev (1953-62).
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