preview

The Main Spring Of Rosenzweig 's Thoughts About Translation Stems From The Bible Essay

Decent Essays

The main spring of Rosenzweig’s thoughts about translation stems from the Bible. This can be clearly seen in the Star of Redemption, especially when he states:
It is the first effect of the spirit to translate, to erect a bridge between man and man, between tongue and tongue . . . God speaks everywhere with the words of men . . . the translator, the one who hears and transmits, knows himself equal to the One who first spoke and received the word. (366)
This suggests that the essence of translation is communication; it is the only solution to bridge the chasm between human beings. God speaks to men through a spoken language. In addition, Rosenzweig debates in his Jehuda Halevithat that “there is only one language.” All languages are basically one language under the umbrella of God. just as a language has given birth to all who speak it, so all human expression, all alien tongues that ever have been or will be spoken, must be contained in it, at least in the germ . . .There is no trait in any one language which is not at least latent in every other, though it may appear only in dialects, in the vocabularies of trades and callings, or in the chatter of the nursery. The possibility and the function of translating, its can-be, may-be and should-be, are based on this essential oneness of all languages, and on the command springing from that oneness that there shall be communication among all men.
According to Rosenzweig, all languages come to gather to create the language

Get Access