Translation from the Other Side: Process before Product or “In Defense of Lost Causes”

In Western scholarship, descriptions of translation have emphasized instrumentality and outcome, leaving one to wonder where the translator as human being is in this product-oriented field. Bible translation is equally affected by this tendency. In fact, recent developments affecting the Bible translation mission, including an infusion of funding which comes with a focus on technology and the expectation of increased speed to product, make questions about the translator and translation as process all the more acute. This essay suggests that a perspective on translation has been lost or obscured, and seeks to look at translation “from the other side”—the side of anthropology, which allows translation to be (re)considered as a serious human endeavor, a feature of human life-in-movement, a meaningful and meaning-making process