"Translators Struggle to Prove Their Academic Bona Fides"

[Olga Meerson]

Robertjan, you have hit the bull's eye, as usual--with Mercury, our pretense at hermeneutic prisms' invisibility, shame of the Tower of Babel, Chomskian denial of our fundamental clutural AND linguistic differences, and all the works. We don't want to admit how much we depend on translators. Another reason, I suspect, only adding to these previous ones, is that it would show many professional interpreters of literature, theorists, etc., out of jobs: these guys believe that their interpretations are (a) important and (b) can afford being only partial, not addressing the complexities of the text as a whole. But such a partial approach immediately reveals itself as "not holding water" once you begin to translate: you have to address EVERY difficulty the text presents--not all of them addressed successfully but all carefully considered--just to go on with the work in question. It is like American doctors vs. nurses. It is only the latter who know (at best!) how to draw your bloo!
 d !
without covering you all in bruises! But it is so much more prestigious, especially in a Medical school, to be a Doctor than a nurse, even a registered one!
OK, steam let out, I can now properly thank both you and Lynn for drawing our attention to this shameful phenomenon in our profession!
Olga

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