A short history of translation and translators

Two other major translations of the Bible were the “Jakub Wujek Bible” (“Biblia Jakuba Wujka”) in Polish (1535) and the “King James Bible” in English (1604-11), with lasting effects on the languages and cultures of Poland and England.

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  Two other major translations of the Bible were the “Jakub Wujek Bible” (“Biblia Jakuba Wujka”) in Polish (1535) and the “King James Bible” in English (1604-11), with lasting effects on the languages and cultures of Poland and England.
  
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  The Bible was also translated into Dutch, French, Spanish, Czech and Slovene. The Dutch edition was published in 1526 by Jacob van Lisevelt. The French edition was published in 1528 by Jacques Lefevre d’Étaples (also known as Jacobus Faber Stapulensis). The Spanish edition was published in 1569 by Casiodoro de Reina. The Czech edition was published in 1579-93. The Slovene edition was published in 1584 by Jurij Dalmatn.
  
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  All these translations were a driving force in the use of vernacular languages in Christian Europe, and contributed to the development of modern European languages.
  

In the 17th century

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  In the 17th century
  
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  Miguel de Cervantes, a Spanish novelist known all over Europe for his novel “Don Quixote” (1605-15), expressed his own views on the translation process. According to Cervantes, translations of his time — with the exception of those made from Greek to Latin — were like looking at a Flemish tapestry by its reverse side. While the main figures of a Flemish tapestry could be discerned, they were obscured by the loose threads, and they lacked the clarity of the front side.
  
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  In the second half of the 17th century, English poet and translator John Dryden sought to make Virgil speak “in words such as he would probably have written if he were living as an Englishman”. Dryden also observed that “translation is a type of drawing after life”, thus comparing the translator to an artist several centuries after Cicero.
  
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  Alexander Pope, a fellow poet and translator, was said to have reduced Homer’s “wild paradise” to “order” while translating the Greek epic poems “Iliad” and “Odyssey” into English, but these comments had no impact on his best-selling translations.