International Translation Day 2024

Saint Jerome, pioneer of translation

Saint Jerome is best known for his monumental work: the translation of the Bible into Latin, known as the Vulgate. Imagine for a moment the monumental task that lay before him. Translating the entire Bible – over 1,100 chapters in dozens of books – was no mean feat in an era when everything had to be written by hand. In those days, there were no dictionaries, no search engines… just parchment, a pen and an in-depth knowledge of Greek, Hebrew and Latin.
Translating a text as sacred as the Bible was not simply a matter of replacing one word with another. Jerome had to understand the spiritual and cultural nuances of each passage, juggling idiomatic expressions and religious symbols that were often impossible to transpose directly. One word out of place, and the whole meaning of the text could be distorted. It’s not hard to imagine his frustration with some complex expressions.

The art of juggling words

Take, for example, the French biblical expression whose English translation is “lost sheep“, referring to the faithful who stray from their faith. A literal translation would be “stray ewes”, which despite being the usual expression in English, lacks the spiritual depth the original French was trying to convey. Saint Jerome, in his meticulous work, knew that he had to avoid such pitfalls and translate not only the words, but also the deeper meaning. This may seem simple today, but in an age when languages were undergoing constant transformation, it was quite an art.

As for the famous expression “a camel passing through the eye of a needle”, used in the New Testament to evoke the impossibility of a rich man entering paradise, it’s easy to imagine Jerome’s sleepless nights when faced with this singular image. Too literal a translation could lead to absurdities like “a camel stuck in a sock”. This example, although fictitious, illustrates the daily challenges that translators can face. Striking a balance between faithfulness to the original text and a comprehensible adaptation for the Roman readers of the time was quite a feat.

The everyday life of the modern translator

Although modern tools have alleviated the task of translators, their work remains just as demanding as that of Saint Jerome. Each language has its own subtleties, idioms and unique cultural concepts. A translator doesn’t just swap some words for others, but must understand the essence of a text and transpose it into another language without distorting its meaning. That’s the beauty – and the difficulty – of this profession.
Today, a translator can be called upon to handle requests just as complex as those tackled by Jerome. Let’s take a simple example: imagine a translator needs to translate into English the French sentence “Je suis dans le train”. In this case, the translator knows that “I am in the train” could lead to confusion: the speaker may indeed be inside the train, but there’s no indication that the speaker is a passenger. In order to say that the speaker is actually traveling by train, the correct translation would be: “I am ON the train”, a subtlety that only experience and intimate knowledge of languages can master. Not to mention the need to understand the original meaning of the sentence in French: “what did the author really mean?”. To do this, the linguist relies on the context (the rest of the text, illustrations, etc.) and his or her deductive abilities.
However, the pressure on translators doesn’t stop there. With the growth of international trade, they are now faced with ever tighter deadlines, often harried by customers who don’t understand the complexity of the translation process. Unlike machines, which can deliver instant but approximate results, human translators have to juggle the cultural nuances, contexts and references specific to each text.

Without translators, a modern Babel

Without translators, the world would resemble a gigantic Tower of Babel. Misunderstandings would be commonplace, intercultural dialogue virtually impossible, and people would get their diplomatic wires crossed time and again, on an alarming scale. Thanks to translators, literary works cross borders, scientific exchanges are disseminated in all languages, and international agreements are created.
Translators are the guardians of meaning and language. Their role goes beyond that of mere linguistic intermediaries: they are the bridges between cultures, the artisans of mutual understanding. Whether translating a literary work, a legal document or a technical manual, they play an essential role in communication between people who speak different languages.

Saint Jerome, a source of inspiration

On this International Translation Day, we pay tribute to Saint Jerome. He symbolizes the commitment and perseverance that translators demonstrate every day. His example shows the extent to which this profession demands absolute rigor, a love of detail and the ability to navigate between cultures with great flexibility.
As we raise our glasses to these unsung heroes, we remember the impact they have on our daily lives. A business contract, an instruction manual or a best-selling novel: everything that seems obvious in our mother tongue is the result of the tireless work of dedicated translators. Like Saint Jerome, they pursue the essential mission of building bridges between populations, one word at a time.