International Translator's Day

Yesterday, on September 30th, we celebrated International Translator's Day. I am glad there's a holiday like that because it tells me that what I and my colleagues do IS important and valuable.

A little about the history of the holiday:

Actually it's the day of Saint Jerome's death. That's how this awesome man of God looked like:

He was the one who translated the Holy bible into Latin and the one who is considered to be the patron saint of all translators and interpreters. He is also one of the Church Fathers. He wrote a great number of texts on theology, commentaries to the Holy Scripture, and he was an excellent translator who was not just concerned about the practical side of this job, but reflected on the theory of translation. He discussed the issue of the "right" or "adequate" translation, reflected on the usage of literal translations and comparative translations. Saint Jerome traveled a lot and finally decided to stay in Bethlehem where he worked on the translation of the Old and New Testaments into Latin. He was a father of all translators and interpreters who were later called by Alexander Pushkin "postal horses of progress" as their influence upon the world is so great and yet so subtle. Only in 1991 the world started to celebrate this holiday and I am so thankful that it did!

Yesterday I had my first experience of participating in ProZ.com virtual conference for translators and interpreters. It was amazing - around 10,000 people from all over the world took part in this event! There were a lot of discussions going on, educational sessions, powwows, fabulous discounts on various kinds of translation software and lots of other different things. I enjoyed getting to know my colleagues, discussing different issues with them. Unfortunately there were some problems with sound at the time of some panel discussions and sessions, but all of them are now recorded and available for the participants. So I hope the sound will be better and I'll be able to hear what I couldn't hear yesterday. I'm also planning to listen to some presentations which I wasn't able to attend yesterday because of the difference in time. So I can really call my translator's day intensive and highly productive.

I wish Happy Translator's Day to all my colleagues! May the Lord bless you and keep you and help you grow in your skills. As for me, there's one very important lesson that I learned from the life of our father Saint Jerome: I need to become a true servant, because that's what translators do - they serve other people and help them reach perfect mutual understanding.

P.S. This post was made with the help of the following resources:

Wikipedia

Musings from an overworked translator and

Tonnel.ru

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