From Language to Language: The Hospitality of Translation

by Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Dylan Temel (translator)

A renowned Senegalese philosopher explores the power of translation to bridge cultural divides in this engaging humanist text.

Informed by his own multicultural background—African, French, and American—Souleymane Bachir Diagne interrogates the practice of translation in this thoughtful text. Although translation often produces a relationship of profound inequality between dominant and dominated languages, it can also be a source of dialogue and exchange, including in situations of asymmetry, particularly regarding colonialism, where the interpreter becomes a true cultural mediator.

To praise translation, “the language of languages,” is to celebrate their plurality and their equality, because to translate is to give hospitality in one language to what has been thought in another. It is to create reciprocity, a shared sense of humanity, and to imagine a positive version of the Tower of Babel.

Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy

128 pages, Hardcover

First published March 16, 2022

About the author

Souleymane Bachir Diagne (1955) is a Senegalese philosopher. His work is focused on the history of logic and mathematics, epistemology, the tradition of philosophy in the Islamic world, identity formation, and African literatures and philosophies.

Reviews

[Merve Özcan Özkan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Çevirinin hedef dilde yeni bir anlam kazandığını anlatmaya çalışmış ancak çeviri olduğu ve yabancı dilleri kullandığı için de (verdiği dil örnekleri vb.) asıl anlamını kaybetmiş.

Okuması, takip etmesi çok zor, felsefeyle ilgisi olmayan biri için hele aman aman.
Beklediğimi bulamadım.

Aklımda şöyle tutacağım: Çeviri su gibi, ulaştığı kalıba göre şekil alan.

Not: Kitap meslektaşları, emsalleri, denkleri tarafından harika bulunabilir. Benimkisi öbür taraftan bir bakış.

[A YOGAM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Souleymane Bachir Diagne, getragen von seiner afrikanischen, französischen und amerikanischen Kultur, entwirft in „De langue à langue“ eine philosophische Reflexion über die Übersetzung als ethische Praxis. Übersetzen erscheint hier nicht nur als technischer Akt, sondern als Form der Gastfreundschaft zwischen Sprachen: Jede Übersetzung ist Einladung, Begegnung und Dialog, selbst in asymmetrischen Machtverhältnissen, wie sie etwa in kolonialen Kontexten entstehen.
Diagne zeigt, dass die Übersetzung das Potenzial hat, Differenz nicht zu nivellieren, sondern produktiv zu gestalten – sie schafft ein plurales Universum der Sprachen, in dem Gleichheit und Austausch möglich werden. Übersetzen wird so zu einem humanistischen Akt: Es ist die Pflege von Richtigkeiten anderer Kulturen in der eigenen Sprache, eine imaginierte „glückliche Babel“, in der Verschiedenheit als Bereicherung erfahren wird.
Das Buch verbindet klaren philosophischen Anspruch mit einem engagierten humanistischen Blick und lädt dazu ein, Übersetzung nicht nur als Werkzeug, sondern als ethische Praxis der Begegnung zu verstehen.

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well-written, expansive and learned. Diagne is still as clear as he was when writing on African philosophy and mathematics. Sparing in his references but they are always fascinating ones, ranging from 9th century Iraq to modern day science fiction. Bravo.

[Hailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was not expecting the subject matter here actually I thought it would be more about literal translation but instead it was more about the philosophy/politics of translation. Interesting though like I hadn’t really considered translation in terms of art or religion before.

[Emma Snyder · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Humanity is not the object of our nostalgia, but our horizon and our task. If God created tribes, it is up to us to build humanity. For this task, of course, translation is not sufficient, but it is a contribution."

[Kristy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dense and slow going reading but fascinating concepts