The First Appearance of the Word Translate
"It is as if a painter translates a poem." For the first time he named his work with the word "translate."
No painting at this knot — only a letter.
Events
- The Translator · Letter 325
Used the verb 'translate' (vertaalt) for the first time to describe his work: 'It is as if a painter translates a poem.'
- The Translator · Letter 326
'What the print does in black and white, the painting must do in colour.' The earliest formulation of cross-media translation
- The Ferocious Reader · Letter 327
Reading Taine's History of English Literature — the theoretical model of 'culture translating itself through literature'
From the Letters
Het is alsof een schilder een gedicht vertaalt. It is as if a painter translates a poem.
Wat de prent in het zwart en wit doet, dat moet de schilderij in de kleur doen. What the print does in black and white, the painting must do in colour.
Vertalen — dat is het woord. Ik vertaal de natuur in teekening. Translate — that is the word. I translate nature into drawing.
Het is niet kopiëren — het is overbrengen van de eene taal in de andere. It is not copying — it is carrying over from one language into another.
Elke teekening is een vertaling — en elke vertaling is een nieuw origineel. Every drawing is a translation — and every translation is a new original.
Letter Sources
Van Gogh letter records referenced on this page, linked to the Van Gogh Letters Project. vangoghletters.org