David Bellos, 2011
(September 2012)
“Translating something ‘from cold’, ‘unseen’,
out of the blue’, or, as some literary scholars would put it, ‘translating a
text in and for itself’ isn’t technically impossible. After all, students at
some universities are asked to do that in their final examinations. But it is not an honest job. It can only
be done by guessing what the context and genre of the utterance are. Even if
you guess right, and even granted that guessing right may well be the sign of
wide knowledge and a smart mind, you are still only playing a game.”
(p78,
emphasis added)
Anyone fancy translating that into Japanese?
