鲁宾逊的这个西方翻译理论读本，正是为了克服和弥补读本的种种不足而编纂成书的。因此，它的编辑出版受到了翻译研究界、尤其是西方翻译史研究界的广泛欢迎。可以说，在涉及20世纪之前的西方翻译理论文献研究方面，无论从书的篇幅和内容覆盖面，还是从历史跨度和所涉人物范围，这部作品都称得上是相关领域里迄今最为完整、最有参考价值的英语读本。

道格拉斯·鲁宾逊(Douglas Robinson)是一位多产的翻译理论家，他的学术观点新颖，文字犀利，在译学问题上常有别出心裁的论述。本书为其最具代表性的作品之一，也是西方翻译史研究乃至整个西方翻译研究领域迄今引用最频繁的作品之一。可以说，在涉及20世纪之前的西方翻译理论文献研究方面，无论从书的篇幅和内容覆盖面，还是从历史跨度和所涉人物范围，这部作品都称得上是相关领域里迄今最为完整、最有参考价值的英语读本。

Editor's Preface

Herodotus

  The Twittering of Birds

  From Istoria, Book Two (mid-5th century B.C.E.)

  The Origin of the Class of Egyptian Interpreters

  From lstoria, Book Two (mid-5th century B.C.E.)

Anonymous ('Aristeas')

  The Work of the SevenS-Two

  From Aristeas to Philocrates (around 130 B.C.E.)

Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Translating Greek Orations into Latin

  From De oratore (55 B.C.E.)

  The Best Kind of Orator (46 B.C.E.)

  Translating Greek Philosophy into Latin

  From De finibus bonorum et malorum (45-44 B.C.E.)

Philo Judaeus

  The Creation of the Septuagint

  From De vita Mosis (20 B.C.E.?)

Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)

  Imitating in Your Own Words

  From Ars Poetica (20 B.C.E.?)

Paul of Tarsus

  Rather Five Words with the Mind Than Ten Thousand in a Tongue

  1 Corinthians 14 (55 C.E.?)

Lucius Annaeus Seneca

  What Is

  From Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, letter 58 (63-65 C.E.)

Pliny the Younger (Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus)

  mitation of the Best Models

  Letter to Fuscus Salinator (85 C.E.?)

Quintilian (Marcus Fabius Quintilianus)

  On What We Should Employ Ourselves When We Write

  From lnstitutio oratoria (96 C.E.?)

Aulus Gellius

  On the Importance of Avoiding Strict Literalness

  From Noctes Atticae (100 C.E.?)

Epiphanius of Constantia (Salamis)

  Producing an Unadulterated Translation

  From De mensuris et ponderibus (392)

Jerome (Eusebius Hieronymus)

  The Best Kind of Translator

  Letter to Pammachius (395)

  Who Was The First Lying Author?

  From Praefatio in Pentateuchem (401 )

Augustine (Aurelius Augustinus)

  The Use of Translations

  From De doctrina Christiana (428)

C. Chirius Fortunatianus

  Translation as 'Exercitatio'

  From the Artis rhetoricae scholicae (5th century)

Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius

  Committing the Fault of the True Interpreter

  From In Isagoge Porphyrii Commenta (510?)

Gregory the Great

  Giving the Sense

  From Letter to Aristobulus (590/91)

  Mangling the Sense

  From Letter to Narses (597/98)

John Scotus Eriugena

  Translator, Not Expositor

  From Prologue to Translation of De caelesti hierarchia by

  Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (mid-9th century)

King Alfred

  Translating Plainly and Clearly

  Preface to Translation of Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy (887?)

  Translating Books Which Are Most Necessary For All Men to Know

  Letter to Bishop Waerferth (890/97)

Aelfric

  Translating into Our Ordinary Speech

  From Preface to Book I of Catholic Homilies (989)

  Pure and Plain Words

  Preface to Book II of Catholic Homilies (992)

  Translating into Idiomatic English

  Preface to Genesis (997?)

Notker the German

  Letter to Bishop Hugo yon Sitten (1015)

Burgundio of Pisa

  The Risk of Altering So Great an Original

  Preface to Latin Translation of St. John Chrysostom,

  Homilies on the Gospel of John (early 1170s)

Anonymous

  The Three Kinds of Translating

  From Commentary on Boethius' De arithmetica (12th century)

Thomas Aquinas

  Proem

  From Contra errores Graecorum (1263?)

Roger Bacon

  On the Usefulness of Grammar

  From Opus Maius (1268?)

Jean de Meun

  Translating for Lay People

  From Prologue to Roman de la Rose (c. 1280)

  Plainly Rendering the Sense

  From Dedication to .Translation of Boethius' Li Livres de Confort de Philosophie

  (between 1285 and 1305)

Dante Alighieri

  Translation Destroys the Sweetness of the Original

  From II convivio (1304-7)

Anonymous

  Another Meaning

  From Ovide moralise(early 14th century)

Richard Rolle

  Following the Letter

  Prologue to English Translation of the Psalter (1330s)

John of Trevisa

  Dialogue Between a Lord and a Clerk upon Translation (1387)

Coluccio Salutati

  Letter to Antonio Loschi (1392)

Anonymous (John Purvey?)

  On Translating the Bible (1395/97)

Leonardo Bruni

  On the Correct Way to Translate (1424/26)

Duarte (Edward, King of Portugal)

  The Art of Translating from Latin

  From O Leal Conselheiro (1430s)

William Caxton

  Prologue to Aeneid (1490)

Desiderius Erasmus

  Letter to Nicholas Ruistre (1503)

  Letter to William Warham (1506)

  Letter to William Warham (1507)

  Letter to Maarten Lips (1518)

Thomas More

  Whether the Clergy of This Realm Have Forbidden All the People to Have

  Any Scripture Translated into Our Tongue

  From A Dialogue Concerning Heresies and Matters of Religion (1529)

Martin Luther

  Circular Letter on Translation (1530)

William Tyndale

  How Happeneth That Ye Defenders Translate Not One Yourselves?

  From An Answer to Sir Thomas More's Dialogue (1531 )

Juan Luis Vives

  Practice in Writing

  From De Tradendis Disciplinis ( 1531 )

  Translation and Interpretation

  From De ratione dicendi (1533)

Etienne Dolet

  The Way to Translate Well from One Language into Another (1540)

Elizabeth Tudor

  Letter to Catherine Parr

  Preface to Her Translation of Queen Marguerite of Navarre, 'The Glasse of the

  Synnefull Soule' (1544)

  The Study of a Woman

  From Preface to Her Translation of Queen Marguerite of Navarre, A godly

  Medytacyon of the christen Sowle (1548)

Mikael Agricola

  Preface to the New Testament (1548)

Joachim du Bellay

  The Defense and Illustration of the French Language (1549)

Anna Cooke

  The Study of Italian Justified

  From Preface to Her Translation of Bernadine Ochine, Fouretene sermons (1550?)

Jacques Peletier du Mans

  Of Translation

  From L'art poetique (1555)

Roger Ascham

  The Ready Way to the Latin Tongue

  From The Schoolmaster (1570)

Etienne Pasquier

  Letter to Jacques Cujas (1576)

  Letter to Odet de Tournebus (1576)

Margaret Tyler

  M.T. to the Reader

  Preface to Her Translation of Diego Ortunez de Calahorra, A Mirrour

  of Princely Deedes and Knighthood (1578)

Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

  We Call Barbarous Anything That is Contrary to Our Own Habits

  From 'Des cannibales' (1580)

Gregory Martin

  Five Sundry Abuses or Corruptions of Holy Scripture

  From the Preface to A Discovery of the Manifold Corruptions of the

  Holy Scriptures... (1582)

  The Holy Scriptures Ought Not be Read Indifferently of All

  From 'The Preface to the Reader', The New Testament of Jesus Christ (1582)

William Fulke

  That None of These Five Abuses are Committed by Us

  From the Preface to A Defence of the Sincere and True Translations

  of the Holy Scriptures into the English Tongue, Against the Cavils

  of Gregory Martin (1583)

  The Holy Scriptures Should Always Be in Our Mother Tongue

  From 'Confutation of the Rhemists' Preface', Confutation of the Rhemist

  Testament (1589)

John Florio

  The Epistle Dedicatory

  Preface to Translation of Montaigne's Essays (1603)

  To the Courteous Reader

  Preface to Translation of Montaigne's Essays (1603)

George Chapman

  The Preface to the Reader

  From His Translation of the Iliad (1611)

Miles Smith

  The Translators to the Reader

  Preface to the Authorized Version of the Bible (1611)

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

  Viewing Flemish Tapestries from the Wrong Side

  From Don Quixote, Part II (1615)

Jean Chapelain

  To the Reader

  Preface to Le Gueux, ou la vie de Guzmdn d'Alfarache (1619-20)

Joseph Webbe

  Perceiving the Custom of the Ancients

  From An Appeal to Truth, Concerning Art and Use (1622)

Suzanne du Vegerre

  The Author's Epistle to the READER

  Preface to Her Translation of John Peter Camus, Admirable Events (1639)

John Denham

  "To Sir Richard Fanshaw upon His Translation of Pastor Fido" (1648)

  Preface to The Destruction of Troy (1656)

Nicolas Perrot d'Ablancourt

  To Monsieur Conrart

  Dedication of French Translation of Lucian (1654)

  Adjusting Things to Accommodate the Subject

  From Preface to French Translation of Thucydides (1662)

Abraham Cowley

  Preface to Pindarique Odes (1656)

Pierre Daniel Huet

  Concerning the Best Kind of Translation

  From De optimo genere interpretandi (1661)

Katherine Philips

  Translating Pompey

  From Letters from Orinda to Poliarchus (1705)

John Dryden

  The Three Types of Translation

  From 'Preface' to Ovid's Epistles (1680)

  Steering Betwixt Two Extremes

  From 'Dedication of the Aeneis' (1697)

Wentworth Dillon, Earl of Roscommon

  An Essay on Translated Verse (1684)

Aphra Behn

  Translating French into English

  From 'An Essay on Translated Prose' (1688)

  Recasting, Not Translating

  From Fontenelle's 'Preface to the History of Oracles' (1688)

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

  Enriching the German Language

  From Unvorgreifliche Gedanken, betreffend die Ausubung und Verbesserung

  der deutschen Sprache (1697)

Anne Dacier

  My Condemnation

  From Preface to Translation of L'lliade d'Homere (1699)

Joseph Addison

  National Accents

  Spectator no. 29 (1711)

Alexander Pope

  The Chief Characteristic of Translation

  From Preface to the Iliad (1715)

Charles Batteux

  Principles of Translation

  From Principes de litt~rature (1747-48)

Elizabeth Carter

  Translating Epictetus

  From Her Correspondence with Catherine Talbot and Thomas Secker(1749-57)

Samuel Johnson

  The Art of Translation

  The Idler 68/69 (1759)

  Translating Homer

  From 'Life of Pope' (1779-81)

Johann Gottfried Herder

  The Ideal Translator as Morning Star

  From Uber die neuere Deutschen Litteratur: Fragmente, (1766-67)

  Language as Maiden

  From Uber die neuere Deutschen Litteratur: Fragmente, rev. ed. (1768)

Alexander Frazer Tytler

  The Proper Task of a Translator

  From Essay on the Principles of Translation (1791)

Novalis (Friedrich Leopold, Baron von Hardenberg)

  Translating Out of Poetic Morality

  From a Letter to A. W. Schlegel (1797)

  Grammatical, Transformative, and Mythic Translations

  From Blutenstaub (1798)

August Wilhelm von Schlegel

  Noble Rust

  From Dante - Uber die GOttliche Kom6die ( 1791)

  At Once Faithful and Poetic

  From 'Etwas tiber Wilhelm Shakespeare bei Gelegenheit Wilhelm

  Meisters' (1796)

  Poetic Translation an Imperfect Approximation

  From 'Homers Werke von Johann Heinrich Voss' (1796)

  Projecting Oneself into Foreign Mentalities

  From Geschichte der klassischen Literatur (1802)

  The Speaking Voice of the Civilized World

  From Geschichte der romantischen Literatur (1803)

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Prose Translations

  From Dichtung und Wahrheit ( 1811 - 14)

  The Two Maxims

  From Rede zum Andenken des edlen Diehters, Bruders und Freundes

  Wieland (1813)

  Translations

  From West-Ostlicher Divan (1819)

  The Translator as Matchmaker

  From Maximen und Reflexionen (1826)

  On Carlyle's German Romance (1828)

Friedrich Schleiermacher

  On the Different Methods of Translating (1813)

Wilhelm yon Humboldt

  The More Faithful, The More Divergent

  From the Introduction to His Translation of Aeschylus' Agamemnon (1816)

Anne-Louise-Germaine Necker, baronne de Stael-Holstein

  On the Spirit of Translations (1816)

Percy Bysshe Shelley

  The Violet and the Crucible

  From A Defenee of Poetry (1821 )

Arthur Schopenhauer

  On Language and Words

  From Parerga und Paralipomena ( 1851)

Edward FitzGerald

  Letter to E. B. Cowell (1859)

  Letter to J. R. Lowell (1878)

Matthew Arnold

  The Translator's Tribunal

  From On Translating Homer (1861)

Francis W. Newman

  The Unlearned Public is the Rightful Judge of Taste

  From Homeric Translation in Theory and Practice (1861)

Richard E Burton

  Clothing the Skeleton

  From Preface to Translation of Vikram and the Vampire (1870)

  A Plain and Literal Translation

  From Introduction to The Book of The Thousand Nights and a Night (1885)

Robert Browning

  Literal at Every Cost

  From Preface to Translation of Aeschylus' Agamemnon (1877)

Friedrich Nietzsche

  Translation as Conquest

  From Die frohliche Wissenschaft (1882)

  Translating the Tempo of the Original

  From Jenseits Gutes und Boses (1886)

Biographies

Further Reading

References

Name Index

Subject Index

Title Index