Oral transmission and written translation: a self-study reference

Translating a translation of a translation is a singular experience. It is as if we were pentrating to the core of the original and at the same time feeling in our soul the expanding growth of thought and meaning conveyed by the translations. When, as in our case, we are translating from Italian to English knowing that the text is from a French version of the Ancient Greek, it is as if we were holding not a pen but the essence of life itself in the palm of our hand. And when we think that the Fables of Aesop were told over and over again, handed down from generation to generation, before they were actually written down, and that no two versions were exactly alike in the telling, we realise more and more that we are part of the great chain. What we are translating is not words from one language to another, but an emotion, a concept, a feeling, 'translating in essence' from one culture to another, from one moment in time to another with each culture feeding on that which has gone before. When we translate, however faithful we are to the orginal, we too are telling the story in our own words, giving each one of us yet another version of the story according to our own experience, culture, outlook, and vision of life, saying what we would say in the circumstances. Each version is unique, but part of the great whole which is all languages in time and place that will go on existing for ever and ever.