Cultural translation

Cultural translation represents the practice of translation, which involves cultural differences. Cultural translation can be also defined as a practice whose aim is to present another culture via translation. This kind of translation solves some issues linked to culture, such as dialects, food or architecture.

The main issue that cultural translation must solve consists in translating a text as showing cultural differences of this text, in respecting the source culture.

Cultural translation is a term which must be also studied through cultural anthropology, a field of anthropology focused on cultural issues among humans. This discipline questions translation through cultural differences. Indeed, translation studies are not only based on language issues, but also on cultural contexts between peoples.

An anthropological translator of cultures needs to deal with the issues between the source and the target language, that is to say he must respect at the same time the cultural source of point of view and the target culture. Wilhelm von Humboldt shared this opinion of translation in a letter addressed to A.W.Schlegel, dated July 23, 1796: “All translation seems to me simply an attempt to solve an impossible task. Every translator is doomed to be done in by one of two stumbling blocks: he will either stay too close to the original, at the cost of taste and the language of his nation, or he will adhere too closely to the characteristics peculiar to his nation, at the cost of the original. The medium between the two is not only difficult, but downright impossible” since “…despite the fact that translation brings cultures nearer, in each translation, there will be a definite deformation between cultures."

Some anthropologists raise objections to translation of cultures. According to these researchers, culture seeks a certain coherence that can be found in people’s thinking and practices. In this case, a cultural translator must have a much more widespread knowledge than the text actually provides.

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