Translating is a procedure widely used in the European and world

community. To translate means to render into another language or express

in another artistic medium and interpret the significance of meaning. The
word derives from the Latin word for transfer. A translation has to be
explicative, expository, illuminating and accurate. Translation is a
procedure relevant to social life, a social phenomenon which allows
people that come from different cultural backgrounds to understand each
other. Translation varies according to the readers or translators
motivation and purposes. It also varies according to the situation. There
are certain factors that have to be taken into account when translating
such as register, grammar, vocabulary, field, mode, tenor, context, speech
acts and genre according to the particular text in question. The translator
has to make sure that every element is appropriately transferred into the
target environment.
A translation is of paramount importance in different cases. In
some African languages, for example, there is lack of writing systems and
some tongues have translations of the New Testament as a written legacy.
In Alexandria, Egypt translation played an important role because through
the Greek translation of the Old Testament (Septuagint) people had the
chance to come into contact with religious thought. Arab scholars
introduced Aristotle in Arabic translation to Islam. Translation of
medieval European astronomy stimulated interest in astronomy.
Pennsylvania Dutch, a distinguishable language, is actually English
heavily influenced by literal translations from the original German
language of settlers in Pennsylvania. There are many important
translations in the University of Cambridge.
Translation is widely used in institutions such as the United
Nations and the European Union. It is used for various purposes such as
religion, diplomacy (Foreign Service) education and economics. It is also
used in encyclopaedias in international trade, journalism and even in the
fashion industry.
However, the most important function of translation is the fact that
it gives people around the world the chance to enjoy literature that was
originally written in another language. This is very important especially
as far as children are concerned because young children do not speak
foreign languages. Many poets and writers were and still are translated
into many languages. Hans Christian Andersens stories have been
translated into more than eighty languages and have been the source of
plays, ballets, films and works of sculpture and painting. There are also
hundreds of translations of The Bible, which is the most widely translated
and distributed work in human history. Modern translations of The Bible
are relatively close to Hebrew. Constantine Cavafy ensured his influence
in the western culture through references in Alexandria and other
renowned Greek writers and poets are present inn bilingual editions.
Nikos Kazantzakis, Seferis and Ritsos have been translated into various
languages. The masterpieces of Leo Tolstoy, Dante Alighieri, Plato and
Aristotle have also been translated into various languages. This gives the
writers the chance to be internationally recognized and other nations to
broaden their knowledge and learn new things about the writers in
question motherlands culture. In human history there have been
translations of various works such as scientific and literary.
In order for these works of art to be transferred into another
successfully the translator has to interfere when translating. If the
translator didnt interfere people who come from different countries and
cultural backgrounds wouldnt have the chance to assimilate and
understand the text they are reading. The translator often has to modify
and change the text he has to translate in order to make sure that it is
going to be understood by all readers and that it is not going to look too
foreign and distant. The interventions are evident in some texts.
William Shakespeare, Shakespeare also spelled Shakspere, byname
Bard of Avon or Swan of Avon (baptized April 26, 1564, Stratford-upon-
Avon, Warwickshire, Englanddied April 23, 1616, Stratford-upon-
Avon) English poet, dramatist, and actor, often called the English national
poet and considered by many to be the greatest dramatist of all time.

Shakespeare occupies a position unique in world literature. Other poets,

such as Homer and Dante, and novelists, such as Leo Tolstoy and Charles
Dickens, have transcended national barriers; but no writers living
reputation can compare to that of Shakespeare, whose plays, written in
the late 16th and early 17th centuries for a small repertory theatre, are
now performed and read more often and in more countries than ever
before. The prophecy of his great contemporary, the poet and dramatist
Ben Jonson, that Shakespeare was not of an age, but for all time, has
been fulfilled.

It may be audacious even to attempt a definition of his greatness, but it is

not so difficult to describe the gifts that enabled him to create imaginative
visions of pathos and mirth that, whether read or witnessed in the theatre,
fill the mind and linger there. He is a writer of great intellectual rapidity,
perceptiveness, and poetic power. Other writers have had these qualities,
but with Shakespeare the keenness of mind was applied not to abstruse or
remote subjects but to human beings and their complete range of
emotions and conflicts. Other writers have applied their keenness of mind
in this way, but Shakespeare is astonishingly clever with words and
images, so that his mental energy, when applied to intelligible human
situations, finds full and memorable expression, convincing and
imaginatively stimulating. As if this were not enough, the art form into
which his creative energies went was not remote and bookish but
involved the vivid stage impersonation of human beings, commanding
sympathy and inviting vicarious participation. Thus, Shakespeares merits
can survive translation into other languages and into cultures remote from
that of Elizabethan England.