The Task of the Translator

Benjamin, Walter. “The Task of the Translator“ in Illuminations trans. Harry Zohn (New York: Schoken Books 1969)

The Task of the Translator addresses the foundational question of what the role of artist is and is not. It could be discerned as the definition of the difference between a commercial artist and a fine artist, for at the beginning of the essay Benjamin asserts, “no poem is intended for the reader, no picture for the beholder, no symphony for the listener.” The original experience does not exist for our audience but is instead a moment of “hidden significance” that is revealed through our efforts to translate it. Whereas the commercial artist is trying to communicate a particular explanation or interpretation to a specific target audience, the fine artist must realize the temporal state of ideologies and focus instead on conveying experiences that may be considered within the framework of whatever contemporary ideology exists. “Art’s essential work is not to make statements, or impart information, because this necessitates audience understanding which is inherently redundant.”

While the essay focuses on the means necessary to communicate an original text from one language to another, the visual artist may extrapolate ideas from these theories about how best to approach the representation of the physical and spiritual experiences that are significant. All meaningful communication then is the translation of experience into the language of our medium whether it is visual, oral, or literary.

The objective of the translator is to communicate the original experience as transparently as possible. We must recognize the contextual and historical essence of every experience. Each moment experiences a death. From this river of death we are trying to express the significance of a moment that has occurred in the past. Recognizing the time, space, constraints, we must recognize that we can never recreate the original and therefore any attempts to do so will fail as translations. Instead Benjamin looks at linguistic theories and sees the common purpose of representation found n all languages. While multiple languages may have word elements that identify the same referent object, or denotative meaning, the intentionality of how the words are used, their connotative meanings, cannot be translated accurately depending on the translatability of the subject matter. Benjamin suggest that we should form a “pure language” through the supplementing of the new language with the uniqueness of the original. He points out the systematic nature of languages and how new elements may be introduced to increase output. Languages follow structural rules, but are expansive in the possible outcomes.
Contrary to the idea that more information is beneficial for accurate communication, Benjamin suggests that the transmission of information is not beneficial for conveying meaning. “The inferior translator id defined as one who provides inaccurate transmissions of inessential content.” In speaking of art Benjamin writes, “The essential substance of art is not information, but is in the unfathomable, mysterious, or poetic.” The literary work tells very little to those who understand it. Shared meaning is based upon shared experience, which means we are not conveying anything new to our audience.

Translation is a mode of representation. Translatability must be an essential feature of the experience we wish to convey. If we apply our interpretations or explanations of the event or experience, we are changing the meaning to that of our own perceptions and we are limiting our audience’s ability to relate to the work in their own way.
Benjamin introduces the concept of our artwork-translation as having an afterlife. First we are creating an afterlife for the moment or experience we are translating, and secondly, our artwork will potentially have an afterlife, “whose appreciation goes beyond the limitations of contemporary meaning or posits”, if it is re-actualized through successive retranslations in. Fame is not something that occurs during the life of our work and therefore is something that artist shouldn’t be concerned with.

In order to expand the potential of the afterlife of our work we should avoid putting too much specificity to it because, as Benjamin writes, “The context of the now will never exactly mirror that of the original.” Instead the artist must commit the destructive act of removing their voice and too much information and remain like the fingerprints of the potter left on the clay vessel.
History cannot be written as it is happening. Significance comes through trans-generational translation. Renewal comes from the updating of a translation into contemporary language. The act of translation has the unique characteristic of both elevating the original and yet it can never equal it, thereby creating distance between the original and the audience which creates an aura around the expression of our translation (i.e. art object).