Translation Under Historical Context

Culturally, translation is the communication between two languagesand two cultures. A lot of factors are involved in the whole process where the original text is rendered into the target text. The target text (translation) and reviews on it provide the evidence how the original text is dealt with. The translators are the actual doer of the thing, but they are not totally free in the translation process, not only are they constrained by what has been prescribed in the original text, but they have to consider the accepting environment in the target culture, the particular historical context when the translation is offered to the public.Modern translation studies does not take translation as a technique to find out equivalences between two languages, but starts from the external factors of translation, such as culture and literature, trying to find out why the translator has done in this way and those factors that constrain the translator's translational work, rather than provide explanations or suggestions on how to translate.From the perspective of descriptive translation studies, Gideon Toury takes translation as an existing fact in the target culture, and connects together the prospective function a translation is going to take in the target culture, its appropriate surface realization and the strategies the translator takes in the translation process. He introduces translational norms into translations studies and believes that translation is a norm-governed activity, and the translator in the translation process is constrained by those norms. Similarly, Andre Lefevere also studies translation in the target culture; how the translator is influenced by various social and cultural factors and how the original text is rewritten. To both of them, translation becomes a tool in the receiving society to function in a prescribed way, and therefore reflects certain needs of the society.