Translators are the unacknowledged facilitators of the world
But they and interpreters rarely get their due
DID A MISTAKEN translation put rovers on Mars? In 1877 Giovanni Schiaparelli, an Italian astronomer, used his then state-of-the-art telescope to view and describe what he called “canali” on the planet. English translators leapt on the discovery of what they rendered as “canals”. There followed a frenzy of speculation that Mars might be inhabited, which left a deep mark on the human imagination. To this day “Martian” is a synonym for alien life.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Only translate”
From the June 19th 2021 edition
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