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It is the task of the translator to release in his own language that pure language that is under the spell of another, to liberate the language imprisoned in a work in his re-creation of that work.
Walter Benjamin
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The translator's role is to free the original language's essence and express it in a new language.

Walter Benjamin's quote emphasizes the profound responsibility of translators to not only convey words from one language to another but to capture and express the original's nuanced spirit and meaning. It highlights the art of translation as a creative process, where the translator becomes a re-creator who reinterprets and liberates the original text's intrinsic beauty and depth in their own linguistic framework.

Themes

TranslationLanguageArtCreativityInterpretation

In practice

Example use cases

In a lecture on the importance of translation in literature, this quote can illustrate the depth of a translator's work.

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