Dialogue on Translation Between a Lord and a Clerk

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The Dialogue on Translation between a Lord and a Clerk, or Dialogus inter dominum et clericum, was written by John Trevisa. Along with the dedicatory Epistle, it forms the introduction to his 1387 translation of the Polychronicon of Ranulf Higden, commissioned by Trevisa's patron, Lord Berkeley. Written in Middle English, it consists of a series of arguments made by the clerk on why books should not be translated from learned languages such as Latin, each one followed by a rebuttal from the lord. The clerk eventually agrees, and the exchange concludes with a prayer for guidance in the translation.

Influences[edit]

This work was most probably influenced by a dialogue that Trevisa had translated while studying at Oxford, The Dialogue between the Knight and the Clerk, a conversation between Sir Thomas and his chaplain.[1] It is commonly attributed to William of Ockham and was written in support of the French monarch.[1][2]

Representation[edit]

The dialogue is not a historical record; rather, it uses dramatization as literary criticism in the form of commentary on the translation process.[1][3] As the preface for the Polychronicon, it is a defense of the translation of a seminal text on world history.[4]

There are a few readings of the figures of the dialogue. One interpretation, based on the victor of the dialogue and its context in prefacing a Latin translation, is that Trevisa speaks through the lord figure.[5][6] Another is that Trevisa is the clerk and Lord Berkeley is the lord.[7][8] Yet a third reaction is that the one-sided nature of the dialogue renders it unable to represent a conversation between two people.[1]

Arguments[edit]

In the Dialogue, the lord commissions a prose translation of Higden's Polychronicon, which the clerk initially refuses and eventually accepts. Trevisa uses the dialogue in order to criticize the "grete mischief" of knowledge remaining inaccessible due to language.[5]

The lord[edit]

The lord, or Dominus, begins the dialogue with a speech on language and the utility of Latin as a lingua franca.[9][5] He then requests that the clerk translate Higden's Polychronicon from Latin into English.

The arguments of the lord are characterized by Watson as based in "capacious intellect and improbably egalitarian ethics."[10] The lord notes that not everyone has the ability to learn Latin. When the clerk acquiesces and asks the lord to choose between a poetry or prose translation, the lord selects prose, which he argues will benefit the vernacular audience of the Polychronicon because it is "cleer and pleyn" and more succinct.[10][5]

The lord notably uses the translation of the Bible as precedent in his responses.[1] The Bible, according to the lord, is itself a translation from Hebrew to Greek to Latin, and it must also be translated into English in order to be understood by common people.[11][12] He further advocates for the use of English because it is utilized in sermons.[5] Other precedents discussed by the lord includes the translations of Aristotle's works from Greek to Latin and of the works of Caedmon, the earliest known English poet.[13]

The clerk[edit]

The clerk's initial refusal is due to his belief that Latin is a language used by many people, but only the English know English. He also notes that the lord himself knows Latin, to which the lord responds that there is some Latin in the Polychronicon that is beyond his ability. The clerk then argues that it is not necessary for all to know the "cronicles," to which the lord responds with the profitability of a translation.[10] The clerk also voices concerns regarding criticisms of the translations, and the lord concedes that translation cannot be perfect.[14]

According to Watson, throughout the dialogue, the clerk provides "increasingly feeble and snobbish" refutations.[10]

Significance[edit]

The Dialogue marks the first instance of the patron as a literary trope in Middle English.[10] It also, by presenting arguments in favor of translations for vernacular audiences, is a precursor to the fifteenth-century practice of translation of secular literature for profit.[10] William Caxton, who published an edition of Trevisa's translation of the Polychronicon in 1482, notes these two features in his prologue.[15]

Despite being a prolific translator, the Dialogue and the Epistle were Trevisa's only original works.[16][17]

David Lawton writes that the dialogue is the most famous writing in the "genre of fictionalized debate about Bible translation."[11] Stephen Morrison and Aude Mairey note that the Dialogue demonstrates awareness of the social and political implications of vernacular translation.[18]

The Dialogue is published, along with the Epistle and translation of the Polychronicon, in the Middle English Pseudo-Turpin, preserved at the Huntington Library.[19][20] Due to its inclusion in textbooks and anthologies, the Dialogue is Trevisa's most well-known work in American classrooms.[21][22][23] The exchange is excerpted on the title page of Rev. John Sharpe's translation of William of Malmesbury's History of the Kings of England.[24]

In translation studies[edit]

Lawton argues that translators' prologues are sources for translation theory.[25] At the start of the dialogue, when alluding to the Tower of Babel, Trevisa presents two solutions to the challenge of "translingual" communication: translation and a universal language, Latin.[26] The Dialogue and the Epistle are both regarded as forms of "direct dissemination" of information about translation.[27]

By translating the Dialogue, Trevisa serves as an intermediary, or "mene," for not only those readers who cannot read Latin but also those who can read both Latin and Middle English (and therefore evaluate the quality of the translation).[28] His theories regarding translation were in accordance with the aims of the early Christian Church, which emphasized ""serving" the source text" and preserving original meaning.[29]

During this time period, translation was a necessary means to developing the corpus of secular English literature.[30] It was also a time at which "translator's anxiety about the function of translation [was] pervasive," which resulted in the use of simpler language and which was recommended by the lord in the Dialogue.[14]

Trevisa engages in interpolation when translating unfamiliar Latin terms in the Polychronicon, and he provides his reasoning for doing so in the Dialogue.[31][32]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e Waldron, Ronald (1989). "John Trevisa and the Use of English" (PDF). Proceedings of the British Academy. 74: 177–202.
  2. ^ Watt, John A. (1971). "Translator". On Royal and Papal Power. By John of Paris. PIMS. ISBN 978-0-88844-258-1.
  3. ^ Merrill, Elizabeth (1911). The Dialogue in English Literature. Henry Holt and Company.
  4. ^ Ng, Su Fang (2001). "Translation, Interpretation, and Heresy: The Wycliffite Bible, Tyndale's Bible, and the Contested Origin". Studies in Philology. 98 (3): 315–338. ISSN 0039-3738. JSTOR 4174704.
  5. ^ a b c d e Summerfield, Thea; Allen, Rosamund (2008). "Chronicles and Historical Narratives". In Ellis, Roger (ed.). The Oxford History of Literary Translation in English: To 1550. Vol. 1. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. pp. 345–347. ISBN 978-1-4416-0717-1. OCLC 320841983.
  6. ^ Somerset, Fiona (2005-11-24). Clerical Discourse and Lay Audience in Late Medieval England. Cambridge University Press. p. 65. ISBN 978-0-521-02327-6.
  7. ^ Morley, Henry (1912). A First Sketch of English Literature. London: Cassell. p. 150.
  8. ^ Liira, Aino (2020). Paratextuality in Manuscript and Print: Verbal and Visual. Presentation of the Middle English Polychronicon (PDF) (PhD). University of Turku. ISBN 978-951-29-8058-1. Retrieved 2020-10-17.
  9. ^ Moll, Richard J. (2012-06-01). "12.06.38, Breen, Imagining an English Reading Public". The Medieval Review. ISSN 1096-746X.
  10. ^ a b c d e f Watson, Nicholas (2008). "Theories of Translation". In Ellis, Roger (ed.). The Oxford History of Literary Translation in English: To 1550. Vol. 1. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. pp. 83–86. ISBN 978-1-4416-0717-1. OCLC 320841983.
  11. ^ a b Lawton, David (2008). "The Bible". In Ellis, Roger (ed.). The Oxford History of Literary Translation in English: To 1550. Vol. 1. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. p. 220. ISBN 978-1-4416-0717-1. OCLC 320841983.
  12. ^ Turville-Petre, Thorlac (1 October 1994). ""Regionalism in Late Medieval Manuscripts and Texts: Essays Celebrating the Publication of 'A Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English'", ed. by Felicity Riddy (Book Review)". Modern Language Review. 89 (4). Cambridge, UK.
  13. ^ Beal, Jane (2019-03-05). "The Idea of the Music in the Latin Polychronicon of Ranulf Higden and the English Translation of John Trevisa". The Medieval Chronicle 12: 38–58. doi:10.1163/9789004392076_004. ISBN 9789004392076. S2CID 197968637.
  14. ^ a b REİS, Huriye (2004). ""...and othere bokes tok me ... To reede upon": Medieval Translation and Cultural Transformation". Hacettepe Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi. 21 (1): 95–105.
  15. ^ Matheson, Lister M. (July 1985). "Printer and Scribe: Caxton, the Polychronicon, and the Brut". Speculum. 60 (3): 593–614. doi:10.2307/2848177. ISSN 0038-7134. JSTOR 2848177. S2CID 162599415.
  16. ^ Edwards, A. S. G. (Anthony Stockwell Garfield), ed. (2004). A Companion to Middle English Prose. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer. ISBN 1-84384-018-9. OCLC 56064965.
  17. ^ Hanna, Ralph (1989-10-01). "Sir Thomas Berkeley and His Patronage". Speculum. 64 (4): 878–916. doi:10.2307/2852871. ISSN 0038-7134. JSTOR 2852871. S2CID 162506517.
  18. ^ "9. John Trevisa, Dialogue entre un clerc et un chevalier", Dialogues et résistances, Textes vernaculaires du moyen âge, vol. 10, Brepols Publishers, pp. 397–409, 2010-01-01, doi:10.1484/m.tvma-eb.4.00191, ISBN 978-2-503-53477-0, retrieved 2020-10-18
  19. ^ Shepherd, Stephen H. A. (1996). "The Middle English "Pseudo-Turpin Chronicle"". Medium Ævum. 65 (1): 19–34. doi:10.2307/43629786. ISSN 0025-8385. JSTOR 43629786.
  20. ^ Trevisa, John; FitzRalph, Richard; Pseudo-Methodius; Burghley, William Cecil; Higden, Ranulf (1485). Translation of Higden's Polychronicon, along with other translations of works into Middle English. Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery. England.
  21. ^ Steiner, Emily (2015-04-01). "Beal, Jane, John Trevisa and the English "Polychronicon"". Speculum. 90 (2): 496–498. doi:10.1017/S0038713415000548. ISSN 0038-7134.
  22. ^ Pollard, Alfred William, ed. (1903). "John Trevisa. Dialogue between a Lord and a Clerk upon Translation". Fifteenth Century Prose and Verse. Archibald Constable and Co – via Project Gutenberg.
  23. ^ Burrow, J. A. (John Anthony); Turville-Petre, Thorlac (2005). A Book of Middle English (3rd ed.). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers. ISBN 1-4051-1708-7. OCLC 54826166.
  24. ^ Sharpe, John (1815). "Translator". The History of the Kings of England and the Modern History of William of Malmesbury. By William of Malmesbury. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown.
  25. ^ Copeland, Rita (2010-08-25). "The Oxford History of Literary Translation in English, Vol. 1: To 1550. Edited by Roger Ellis. Pp. x + 485. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. Hb. £105". Translation and Literature. 19 (2): 221–225. doi:10.3366/tal.2010.0008. ISSN 0968-1361.
  26. ^ Bennett, Karen (2018). "Universal Languages". In Gambier, Yves; D’hulst, Lieven (eds.). A History of Modern Translation Knowledge: Sources, Concepts, Effects. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 195–201. ISBN 978-90-272-0099-0.
  27. ^ Assis Rosa, Alexandra (2018). "Chapter 3.6. Forms and formats of dissemination of translation knowledge". In Gambier, Yves; D’hulst, Lieven (eds.). A History of Modern Translation Knowledge: Sources, Concepts, Effects. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 203–214. ISBN 978-90-272-0099-0.
  28. ^ Pinti, Daniel J. (1994-03-01). "Dialogism, Heteroglossia, and Late Medieval Translation". Translation Review. 44–45 (1): 16–23. doi:10.1080/07374836.1994.10523619. ISSN 0737-4836.
  29. ^ Maggioni, Maria Luisa. "Modern technologies for the studyof Middle English translation techniques:a computer-aided analysis of Trevisaístranslation of De Proprietatibus Rerum(Books I-V)" (PDF). {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  30. ^ Pollard, Alfred William, ed. (1903). "Introduction". Fifteenth Century Prose and Verse. Archibald Constable and Co – via Project Gutenberg.
  31. ^ Lawler, Traugott (1983-01-01). "On the Properties of John Trevisa's Major Translations". Viator. 14: 267–288. doi:10.1484/J.VIATOR.2.301458. ISSN 0083-5897.
  32. ^ Acker, Paul (1994). "The Emergence of an Arithmetical Mentality in Middle English Literature". The Chaucer Review. 28 (3): 293–302. ISSN 0009-2002. JSTOR 25095851.

External links[edit]

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