The history of International Translation Day
\nSt Jerome\u2019s Day, as International Translation Day is commonly known, was celebrated on 30 September. In this article, we look at how this day came about and what types of themes it has considered over the years.
\nSt Jerome, the Bible translator, has always been considered to be the patron saint of translators and interpreters throughout the world. For a long time, the days and weeks (and sometimes months) around 30 September have therefore been used by translators and interpreters (and their associations) to celebrate the occasion. Ever since FIT (International Federation of Translators) was established in 1953, St Jerome\u2019s Day celebrations have been encouraged and promoted by the FIT Council and Executive Committee in an ad hoc fashion. It was not until 1991 that the Public Relations Committee of FIT launched the idea of an International Translation Day.
\nThe FIT Council took up the idea and decided to suggest to FIT member associations that they join forces and show their solidarity on St Jerome\u2019s Day in an effort to promote the translation profession in their own countries (not necessarily only in Christian countries). This would be an opportunity to display pride in a profession that is becoming increasingly essential as borders are tumbling worldwide.
\nSince 1991, the FIT Secretariat has collected reports by FIT member associations on the different ways they have celebrated International Translation Day. My paper is, therefore, a short summary of these reports, as well as a brief account of the evolution of International Translation Day celebrations throughout the world. No official motto was announced for International Translation Day 1991. The motto of the Brighton FIT Congress was then also chosen for the celebrations in 1992 \u2013 \u201cTranslation \u2013 the vital link\u201d
\nThe slogan for 1993 was \u201cTranslation, a pervasive presence\u201d (La traduction, realit\u00e9 omnipr\u00e9sente). That year, the press release contained some valuable information for consumers.
\nThe motto for International Translation Day 1994 was \u201cThe many facets of translation\u201d (Les multiples visages de la traduction), with Jean F Joly, the FIT President, defining scientific and technical translators, media translators, terminologists, conference interpreters, community interpreters, court interpreters, sign-language interpreters and \u201ctranslatologists\u201d in his press release on the occasion.
\nThe theme for 1997, finally, was \u201cTranslating in the Right Direction\u201d (Traduire dans le bon sens). The idea came from the Finnish FIT member association. There, colleagues thought that with all their many translation assignments into languages other than Finnish (in relation to Finland\u2019s entry into the EU), colleagues were losing sight of the fact that the best translation\/interpretation is done into one\u2019s mother tongue. I hope that with this statement I have given you plenty of material for discussion.
\nShould one or should one not translate only into one\u2019s mother tongue? What are the advantages, what are the drawbacks? Etc., etc.!
\nThe theme selected for 1998 is \u201cGood Translation Practices\u201d (Le professionalism en traduction). The subject matter is highly appropriate since quality assurance is on everybody\u2019s mind and needs to be considered by translators as well. The FIT is contributing to a possible solution on the EU\u2019s European Translation Platform.
\nIt is encouraging to see that International Translation Day has developed into a genuine event in our profession. All over the world, translators take the opportunity to think with pride in their work and their achievements. From year to year, more associations in a growing number of countries report on their activities. Let us hope that the snowball effect will continue!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The history of International Translation Day St Jerome\u2019s Day, as International Translation Day is commonly kno…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[20,21,22,23,24],"class_list":["post-90","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asian-trust","tag-clients","tag-company","tag-consultant","tag-departments","tag-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiantrust.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiantrust.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiantrust.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiantrust.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiantrust.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/asiantrust.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3550,"href":"https:\/\/asiantrust.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90\/revisions\/3550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiantrust.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiantrust.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiantrust.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}