Category Archive

“When translating poems I have attempted at all times to attend to the original prosody, which does not mean trying to recreate it —because this is impossible, given the distance and the constitutional differences between the languages— but to be aware of the metric and the ideas underlying in the text”, stated Andreu Jaume, critic and editor, after translating The Waste Land, by T.S. Eliot, one of the most influential books in modern poetry.

This classic piece of poetry work has been read in many languages since its inception in 1922, and its translation —like the translation of any emblematic work— poses many challenges. Which are the books that have been translated the most, due to their significance or popularity?

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Professional Interpreters are a key part of international relations and their profession has been around for centuries. Throughout history, crusaders, explorers, conquistadors, merchants and diplomats have depended on people to act as liaison to bridge the linguistic and cultural gap.

Although their origins are similar, we currently have two main interpretation approaches: consecutive and simultaneous. What is the difference between them?

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In general, “cognation” means “any kind of relation”; in grammar, cognates are terms that are morphologically related. These are words of similar pronunciation, spelling and meaning in two languages, and that are particularly relevant to the understanding of written texts.

Since they share the same etymological origin, it is important to learn cognates at an early age. How do they impact multilingualism?

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When, on February 11, 2020, the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) announced that the name of the novel virus would be “severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) ”and the World Health Organization (WHO) indicated that the name of this new disease would be “COVID-19” (short form of coronavirus disease 2019), the whole world started talking, writing and reading those words every day.

The pandemic brought with it many technical terms that originated in English, the language in which most scientific discoveries are described. At the same time, and given the unprecedented nature of the event, public demand for information increased exponentially. What was the role of translation in the midst of this global pandemic?

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