The Importance Of Translation

In The Task of the Translator, Benjamin argues that: "No poem is intended for the reader, no picture for the beholder, no symphony for the audience" (Benjamin 69). Here, Benjamin emphasizes the objective nature of artistic experience over the subjective one. In On the Program of the Coming Philosophy (1918), Benjamin differentiates between the subjectivity and the objectivity of our experience. For him, there is no experience of the absolute. That is to say, the meaning of art is not related to our personal experience. In addition, he claims that art is not about communication because communication is not essential to the appreciation of art. He states that: "In the appreciation of a work of art or an art form, consideration of the receiver never proves fruitful" (Benjamin 69). Essentially, Benjamin alters the past theoretical discourse to a new way of understanding translation. While in the past translation was concerned with the re-transmission of information, Benjamin elevates translation to become a form of art. According to Benjamin, translation has the same value and follows the same rules as those in the realm of art. Translation is not a secondary product of literary work, but a form of artistic writing parallel to any literary work. Such a claim proves that the

Translatability is possible and even necessary. It is associated with what is essential to translation; something significant in the original that manifests in translation. Translation, however, does not open the door to language because language is already involved in the act of translation (Benjamin, Andrew E, and Hanssen 109). Translation unfolds an essential quality of the original. Quality, in turn, is the work's translatability. Languages remain translatable even when they will never be