Proofreading and translation – this is one of the oldest human activities. Of course, we can not say exactly when the earth appeared the first translator, and archaeologists are unlikely to ever dig up his remains. Translators themselves do not claim to be considered the oldest profession, but there is every reason to believe that as soon as any on the planet multilingual human tribes, and there was a need for people who could serve as intermediaries in contacts between representatives of different tribes.
Numerous facts show that the transfer of a thousand-year history. Among the Sumerian cuneiform texts written over 3000 years BC, we find bilingual vocabularies, clearly intended for the assistance of an interpreter. It is known that in ancient Babylon and Assyria there were groups of translators, bringing to the attention of the commandments of the conquered peoples. In general, no proofreading and translation would be possible existence of ancient empires that have arisen as a result of the gains of many countries, human languages of the nations. And in ancient Egypt it was already a special school, prepare interpreters for contacts with their neighbors. Their existence and mentions the Bible, which tells the story of Joseph and his brothers. In Rome, the era of proofreading and translation began in 240 BC When Livius Andronicus translated Homer’s Odyssey (from the Greek. in Latin).
Then began the assimilation of literature and the proofreading and translation was felt to be an effective way to enrich the culture of the state. In the early stages of proofreading and translation there appeared two different trends: literalism and free proofreading and translation. The first of these is most evident in the proofreading and translations of religious texts, and above all, the Bible. For proofreading and translation of texts the originals were “Word of God”, where every word, word order, and even individual letters and punctuation were sacred, had some special significance and should have, as can be literally played in proofreading and translation. However, it is often violated the norms of the target language, sometimes the proofreading and translation gets dark and confusing, but it does not bother anyone, nor themselves interpreters or readers who believed that religious text and can not be understood by everyone, there is much to be mystical, mysterious, “because this is a great mystery.” If proofreading and translations of religious books tended to maximize the literalism, the other types of proofreading and translation, oral and written, often wore a rough estimate, their creators take liberties with the original, I suppose a lot of unnecessary deviations and errors.
In part, this free (or free) transfer was the result of low-skilled translator, but sometimes it could be due to a lack of due respect for the text to be translated and undemanding to the quality of the proofreading and translation by the translator and the reader. The contrast between the literal and free proofreading and translation and preserved at a later time. In the 19th century the famous Russian translator Irinarkh Vvedensky proclaimed the right to an interpreter for any “gag” when he was filled with the spirit of the original, it turned into a poster and can make up for any omissions, for any reason present in the original. Thus, the proofreading and translation of the novel Ch.Dikkensa “David Copperfield,” he wrote on my own end of the second chapter, the beginning of the sixth chapter, made numerous corrections to the text of the novel. We have already mentioned, and the practice of “ukrashatelskogo” proofreading and translation, a particularly widespread and theoretical basis of the French proofreading and translation of the eighteenth century. Recall that the French in this era saw themselves as the sole possessors of perfect taste, requirements which, in their opinion, did not meet the literary works of other nations, was called “barbaric.” And the proofreading and translation of the works of the “barbarians” (which include Shakespeare and Cervantes, and many other prominent writers and poets) from the translator require correction of the original to make it enjoyable for the reader. In accordance with these requirements interpreters “decorated” translatable text, produced what was considered unnecessary, unfortunate, and so added to his Over time, the number of types of proofreading and translation increased. First of all, significantly increased the requirements for accurate proofreading and translation. Increase the amount of proofreading and translation required highly specialized steel value.
proofreading and translation activities in Russia has a rich history, which was initiated in the times of Kievan Rus. Already in the 9th century in Russia in the form of both mature enough any writing, literature and proofreading and translation. In 864, the Greek monks Cyril and Methodius were sent by the Emperor of Byzantium to preach Christianity among the Slavic peoples. They started their activities with the creation of the alphabet (still called “Cyrillic”), by which translated from Greek into starotserkovnoslavyansky several religious texts. Among these were the first proofreading and translations of the New Testament, Psalms and Prayer. Once in 988 Baptism of Russia was held, there was a set of proofreading and translations that were to familiarize the novice with the philosophical and ethical doctrines of the new religion and church rites and customs. They included texts of various genres, such as the lives of the saints, Proverbs, Chronicles, etc. It was very popular and the Apocrypha, telling us about the different miracles and fantastic accidents, some of them are similar to what later would be called fiction. Most of these transfers were made in Bulgaria but were circulated in Russia.
During the difficult years of the Mongolian yoke (1228–1480) transfers continued to play an important role in the cultural life of the country. It was translated other parts of the Bible, and many of the old proofreading and translations have been corrected or re-executed. In addition to religious texts, there was a more secular proofreading and translations, such as “Indian kingdom”, “Trojan War” and others. Most proofreading and translations done from Greek, some translators, apparently used the Latin and Hebrew sources. During this period, the gradual formation of the Russian language on the basis of the Old Slavonic (Old Church Slavonic) language and folk dialects. However, religious texts continued to be translated into the Church, which began to be used exclusively during church services. At the same time, contacts with other countries is the need for political and business transfers, which are increasingly used by emerging Russian. At this time, nontransferable texts can also be found the connection Old Slavonic and Russian elements. In the 16th century Moscow finally become a political, as well as proofreading and translation center in Russia. In 1515, the Moscow Grand Prince Vasily III has asked Moscow to send in any academic interpreter of the Greek monastery. Such a translator arrived in Moscow in 1516 as part of the Greek Embassy and became known under the name of Maxim the Greek. Throughout his life (he died in 1555 or in 1556), Maxim the Greek translated the mainly religious books, as well as some non-religious texts, to make corrections in previous proofreading and translations and accompanying commentary. At first he did not know Russian or Old Church Slavonic, and proofreading and translations were made in two stages: first he translated from Greek into Latin, and then his assistants translated from Latin into Old Slavonic. His contribution to Russian philology became Dictionary ‘names, in alphabetical order, interpreted “where dealt mainly Greek names, as well as some Latin and Hebrew. From the 17th century to have survived for more than the names of translators and more transfers, mainly non-religious materials. Subjects scientific proofreading and translations included questions of astronomy and astrology, arithmetic and geometry, anatomy and medicine and descriptions of various animals.
Proofreading
Translators of the time can be divided into four categories. Firstly, in various departments worked full-time translators, mostly foreigners – Poles, Germans, Dutch – or people from western or southern regions of Russia. Typically, they are well known classical languages or Polish, but little versed in Russian and Old Church Slavonic. Probably, they were helped by the scribes who recorded and corrected proofreading and translations. Secondly, there was a small group of scientists of the monks, who only translate religious texts from Latin and Greek. Among the most famous names such as Epiphany, Slavinetsky Arseny Greek and Greek Dionysius. Members of the third most numerous group of translators can be called no-combination, which more or less randomly run one-two proofreading and translations. Finally, there were several translators engaged in this business for the love of art and choose their own texts for proofreading and translation. Among them were close to the Tsar: Andrei Matveev, Bogdanov, Prince Kropotkin. A decisive contribution to the development of proofreading and translation activity in Russia has made the 18th century. The political reforms of Peter I greatly expanded economic and cultural contacts between Moscow and the European countries, creating a need for multiple proofreading and translations of scientific texts, as well as works of fiction. Now to the proofreading and translations began to show higher quality requirements.
Tsar Peter the Great issued a special decree on transfers, requiring “coherent” transmission of the translated content. During this period, began to take shape literary norms of the Russian language, and many educated people have seen in the transfer of funds enrich their language, increasing its semantic and expressive potential. An outstanding role in this process belonged to the great Russian scientist and poet Mikhail Lomonosov. Lomonosov and his talented contemporaries Tredyakovsky Sumarokov and created a large number of mostly poetic proofreading and translations. They are often accompanied by their proofreading and translations theoretical arguments explaining why it was necessary to translate this way and not another, emphasizing the particular importance of the proofreading and translation work, his creative nature. foreign counterparts in Czar Peter had a team of translators, and in 1735 at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences was created “Russian Assembly” – the first professional organization of interpreters. It participated actively in the work of Lomonosov, Tredyakovsky and some other members of the Academy. Assembly was concerned with the selection of books for proofreading and translation produced by the rules and principles that have been guided by the translators, to critically evaluate the work done. It is also prepared for future interpreters: the Academy was established language school, whose graduates became official translators. It was believed that the translator was able to translate, at least three languages: Latin, German and French. Golden Age of the Russian proofreading and translation of the nineteenth century began. If the proofreading and translation of the previous century has turned into a special kind of professional activity, in the 19th century this activity was elevated to the rank of fine art.
New Russian school of proofreading and translation began to take shape thanks to, first of all, to the outstanding contribution of such well-known artists, as a historian and poet V.Zhukovsky A.Karamzin. In the late 18th – early 19th century Karamzin published in various journals a large number of proofreading and translations (Greek., Latin, German., Italiano., Eng. And others.). Zhukovsky Pushkin called “the genius of the proofreading and translation.” Thanks to his Russian readers will have access to many works of Schiller and Goethe, Byron, Walter Scott and other leading figures of world literature. The range of his creative quest is truly striking: from the proofreading and translation of fairy tales by Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm to “Odyssey” of Homer, and the famous Russian epic “Lay.” In general, they were supporters of a free proofreading and translation, and often resulted in their transfer turned into another text based on the original. The end of the 19th century. known poetic proofreading and translations feta, Gnedich, Vyazimskogo. After the October Revolution of 1917 in Russia there was a new upsurge of proofreading and translation. On the initiative of M. Gorky was immediately created a new publishing house “World Literature”, has set itself an ambitious goal: to publish a new or revised proofreading and translations of major works of both Western and Eastern literatures. for decades to publish proofreading and translations of the books of many prominent writers and poets – Balzac, Anatole France, Stendhal, Heine, Schiller, Byron, Dickens, Shaw, Mark Twain, and many, many others. At the same time it begins to lay the foundation of linguistic theory. In the 30-ies. Publishing ACADEMY Chukovsky published an article by the art of proofreading and translation, which is 36g. I grew up in a book, and 41g. republished as “high art.” In 50g. was first published work “linguistic theory” Fedorov AV We have already said that in the second half of the 20th century there have been qualitative and quantitative changes in the proofreading and translation activities around the world, including, of course, and Russia.
Here, sharply increased the demand for information (non-fiction) transfers to the social, political, business, scientific and technical spheres. proofreading and translation Profession was the mass, and increase the scale of proofreading and translation was accompanied by organizational changes. A large number of proofreading and translation services in the states and divisions of public institutions and industrial enterprises.