Today, 30th September, is International Translation Day. I almost forgot but thankfully a timely greeting from a client in Malta reminded me. The day was instituted by FIT (International Federation of Translators) in 1991. The 30th September was chosen because it is the feast day of St Jerome, the patron saint of translators.
St Jerome was commissioned by Pope Damasus in 384 AD to translate the New Testament into Latin. This translation is known as the Vulgate because it was written in the Latin spoken by ordinary people at the time and captures the Latin language in the early stage of evolution into the separate languages of French, Spanish, Italian etc. St Jerome chose to follow the “sense for sense” method of translation as opposed to “word for word”.
The theme of this year’s International Translation Day is Working Together.
