Not language alone: Translation and culture

Abstract

Rendering a literary work into another language requires more than plain proficiency in the original language of the piece. Culture and history are so meshed in language that translation requires the translator to delve into the context that went into the creation of the literary text. This paper is based on the work that went into the making of my translation into Tagalog of four plays coming from different countries and climes. The plays confronted me with four different cultural and historical contexts that required to be clarified to make the translations reasonably faithful to the original works. © Ateneo de Manila University.