QuoteProject
Translation is not a matter of words only: it is a matter of making intelligible a whole culture.
Anthony Burgess
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Translation goes beyond word-for-word conversion; it involves understanding and conveying cultural nuances.

This quote by Anthony Burgess emphasizes that translation is not simply about replacing words from one language to another, but rather about capturing the essence of a culture. It involves interpreting context, idioms, and emotions to allow for a deeper understanding of the original message within its cultural framework.

Themes

TranslationCultureLanguageUnderstandingCommunication

In practice

Example use cases

In a seminar discussing global communication, I could use this quote to highlight the importance of cultural context in translation.

More from Anthony Burgess

There is a satisfactory boniness about grammar which the flesh of sheer vocabulary requires before it can become a vertebrate and walk the earth.
Anthony BurgessRead
There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie and Dim, Dim being really dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar making up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening.
Anthony BurgessRead
Violence among young people is an aspect of their desire to create. They don't know how to use their energy creatively so they do the opposite and destroy.
Anthony BurgessRead
Only in England is the perversion of language regarded as a victory for democracy.
Anthony BurgessRead
You needn't take it any further, sir. You've proved to me that all this ultraviolence and killing is wrong, wrong, and terribly wrong. I've learned me lesson, sir. I've seen now what I've never seen before. I'm cured! Praise Bog! I'm cured!
Anthony BurgessRead
It may not be nice to be good, little 6655321. It may be horrible to be good. And when I say that to you I realize how self-contradictory that sounds. I know I shall have many sleepless nights about this. What does God want? Does God want goodness or the choice of goodness? Is a man who chooses the bad perhaps in some way better than a man who has the good imposed upon him? Deep and hard questions, little 6655321.
Anthony BurgessRead

Similar quotes

Educational opportunities have supported the rise of the African middle class, the professional cadre of young people who are now willing and able to contribute to Africa's future prosperity.
Mo IbrahimRead
But without doubts, without a standpoint reached through questionings, human beings can't acquire knowledge.
Ayaan Hirsi AliRead
Wear your learning like your watch, in a private pocket; and do not pull it out, and strike it, merely to show that you have one.
Philip Stanhope, 4Th Earl Of ChesterfieldRead
Certain governments are suggesting that bloggers and tweeters aren't 'real' writers and, so, don't merit protection. A writer is anyone from a Nobel laureate to a debut blogger. They all get PEN's attention.
John Ralston SaulRead
In America we have big issues with education - in impoverished communities especially. I work with Teach For All, and so we're encouraging more people to get into teaching.
John LegendRead
The chief problem in any community cursed with crime is not the punishment of the criminals, but the preventing of the young from being trained to crime.
W. E. B. Du BoisRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.