November 2007 • VOLUME 27 • © HORSES For LIFE™ Magazine

Articles - Traduttore, traditore *reprinted with permission, JC Racinet, Dec 7, 2002

This title is an Italian “wit,” meaning: “translator, traitor.” Those two words indeed come from a common Latin root, “tradere”, which means to hand over, to deliver. It explains the English (and French) “tradition.” It also might explain the English “trade”, since when you trade, you hand over, although Webster’s, rather unconvincingly in my opinion, gives this word a Germanic origin. “Traditori” was the name given to the ancient Christians who would deliver the sacred books to pagans in order to avoid persecution.

A translator hands information over, as does a traitor. The act is the same, but the intention is different.

The translation of a text from one language to another is a very difficult and risky task. One obviously has to be highly versed in both languages, the initial language, and the language into which it is to be translated. This however happens rarely, since there are very few truly bi-lingual people. If a choice should be made, it is better to translate from the language one knows best into the language one knows less. I, for instance, have no qualms translating from French into English, since I understand perfectly the French text I am dealing with, and I know that my knowledge of the English language is sufficient to allow my “handing it over.” Probably a person born and raised in an English speaking country would have the edge over me about the formulation in English of what I have translated, but that same person, if slightly less versed in French than in English, would risk overlooking nuances in the French text, or would even sometimes mistranslate it.

An example of this can be found in Rule Book of the U.S. Cavalry School at Fort Riley, volume 1, page 199. It reads:

"The gather as it is understood in higher equitation is not concerned with the direction of the head alone. It concerns itself as much in the submission of the jaw, which is the first articulation (or spring) to receive the effect of the hand. If this spring responds with softness to the action which solicits its play, it will bring about the flexibility of the neck and will provoke the tying to it of all the other parts, because of the relationship existing among all the muscles.”

”Gather”, in this text, stands for “ramener.” Most American riders nowadays ignore the word “gather”, and would use the word “ramener”, which has become familiar to them.

I quoted this paragraph of the “rule book”, because (although the text fails to mention it) it happens to be an almost exact translation of a passage of General L’Hotte’s “Questions Equestres.” The only error in the translation shows up in the fifth line of the paragraph. It concerns the word “tying” (“provoke the tying to it of all the other parts”).

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