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[AH Index]
translation
(iconsophere entry)

See also:  -[Translation] (LIT entry)
           -[Translation]- (A/H entry) 

On this page:  {Intro} 
                
    
Intro
The word translation has many, many different usages. Literally
it derives from the Latin word meaning "to have gone across".
When a mathematician talks about translating they may mean 
to convert from one set of space coordinates, say ordinary 
xyz (Cartesian) to spherical coordinates (r, theta, phi).

A common usage if of course as in literature in translating 
from one language to another. However, there are several ways
that that might be done; eg, a "literal" translation is a 
word-by-word translation that would (hopefully) CONVEY at least
some of the meaning between the one language and the next. This
borders on the story of "The Chinese Room" in Artificial Intellegence -[click here]-
where can we decide if a person can really "speak/understand"
a language (eg, the rather challenging language of Mandarin
-- usually refered to as "Chinese"; there is also Cantonese,
as well as numerous dialects of each). It's based on a person
having a very good set of "translation texts, dictionaries, etc)
as opposed to having a very good knowledge of Chinese. 

More importantly, comes the idea of translating the INTENT and
FLAVOUR of the work from one language to another. Some time ago,
as relations (following the Berlin Wall collapse) between the
United States and Soviet Union began to thaw, one "good old
boy" from Texas was appointed as an ambassidor to Russia. In
a press inverview, he was heard to remark: "I want to learn
Russina so well, that I can say 'that dog don't here no more'
in Russian". This phrase (colloquial Americanese of the South
West) has nothing to do with dogs or hunting what-so-ever. In
point of fact, it expresses the same concept as the ancient
Scotts dictim: "You fooled me once, shame on you; you fooled
me twice, shame on me". Or more directly: "That Dog (a lie),
"don't hunt here no more" (while i might have been taken in
by a lie once and by your smooth manner, i'm "on to you" and
not going to fall for your deceptions any more). You see the
problem. Thus, a METAPHORICAL rather than a LITERAL method of
translation may be necessary. (How they managed to translate
the poem "Jaberwocky" of Lewis Carrol to French is beyond me;
the poem consists of non-sense words that have at least some
"validty" in terms of English vocabulary, gramar, usage, etc.
For example, "'twas brillig, and slithy toves did mome outwrath
the grabe" (an approximate quote).

Translation in the sense of the iconosphere also takes on the
nature of an IDEA BRIDIGING or KNOWLEDGE AREA BRIDGING device.
One of the simplest examples, is the attempt to "translate"
from the auditory to the visual. Now in terms of writing, the
connection is fairly linear, even if fraught with difficulties;
eg, we can easily speak (and understand) the phrase "In the 
English Language there are three tooze" -- understanding that
the speaker means the three words pronouned "too" (namely, "to",
"too", and "two"). And yet, we are pressed to correctly WRITE
the sentence (at least not without recourse to using a PHONETIC
indication as i have done above. 

NOTE: This is a more serious problem than one might think. For
      normal discourse, we use language DIRECTLY. That is, if
i say "I am a salesman with XYZ Shoe Company, can i show you 
my wares?" -- with the hope of making a sale to a satisfied 
customer. This statement is direct and should be devoid of 
confusion (missed verbal queues, wrong interpretation by the
listener, etc). When (bcause of the thing that i am trying to
communicate) is more complex (as in the case of the "three tooze"),
i must resort to META LANGUAGE (as opposed to DIRECT or "plain text"
language). Further, this becomes complex when we take into the
dictim by writer/philsopher -[Umberto Ecco]-
that:
         "Context is King".

Thus, if i utter the phrase "I'm going to kill you, Aunt Matilda!", 
should a constable be summoned? If i'm dressed as a "derranged killer", 
and it's the second act of a play and the person i'm adressing is 
quite obviously a young girl, "made up" to appear to be a very old
woman, and we are on stage -- then perhaps the constable need
not be disturbed (he's sitting right down there in the first 
row, enjoying the play).
                         "Context is King"

Thus, once we pass from "merely" the world of words, into the world
of ideas, concepts, creativity, etc. -- the problems become even more
manifest. Note too (one of the three "tooze" ;) that in keeping with
the idea of the iconosphere, we will need to approach translation with
even more caution (and at the same time wild abandon) than we would
when trying to render (for example), the Chinese classic "The Dream
of the Red Chamber" (or even more challenging, "The I-Ching") into
say, Swahilli. Note that Mandarin (and Cantonese) are BOTH so-called
"natural" languages while Swahilli is an artificial language (constructed
following World War II, in an attempt to unify the multitude African
tribes into a "United States of Africa" in an attempt to create more
politcal power -- it is based largely on the Bantu language which many
tribal languages share vocabulary and structure with). Thus, the problem
of translation will cause the need to "invent' words that exist in 
Mandarin that were not thought needed when Swahili was invented. Of
course, this is NOT to say that any language (when spoken and used) 
will not evolve, adding and losing words as needed by comman usage,
literature, literary studies, etc. 

Thus, passing from "mere" words, the porblems of translation become
multi-fold and complex. This is part and parcel to at least a major
portion of the iconosphere's purpose. Let us return to the problem of
"translating" auditory experience into visual. I shall use a rather
restricted example of an area which i have investigated at some
length turning:  Turning music into words for the deaf or blind. Note that
this is a much reduced problem than "merely" providing an auditory
track for a movie for the blind or subtitles for the deaf. In a 
MECHANISTIC (and least immaginative way), this problem can be fairly
easily accomplished -- thus, achieving a "minimal" LITERAL translation.
My goal in the work, was to translate impressions of the word from
the auditory (in this case a classical work of orchestra music) into
words that conveyed very impressionistic "images" of the work. On the
one hand, the deaf would benefit by being able to "see" the word 
images that i had created (perhaps even with the assistance of 
VIBRATIONAL waves (felt by the body, rather then heard with the ears)
and hopefully: TRANSLATE (AT LEAST SOME OF) THE AURAL AESTHETIC INTO
AN EQUIVALENT EXPERIENCE FOR THE DEAF. Also, note that the blind would
benefit by hearing the music and hearing (or being given brail, signed,
etc) versions of the TEXT (more like poetry). -[Paris: Impression]-
(The above link can be examined if desired)

Part of the problem occurs in that we must some how "un-hinge" our 
mind (or at the very least un-bind it) from the normal flow of
thinking of one area of knowledge (eg, music) and another (eg,
visual images). 

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