本书的正文，是将全部资料，按照编者所认为的翻译研究的重要方面，分为七个主题排列，分别是意识形态的影响、赞助人的权力、诗学、语篇全域、翻译与语言的发展和教育、翻译技巧，以及中心文本和中心文化。最后一章，也就是第八章，收录了较长的论述，是前面各章的延伸和拓展。

本书侧重文化视角，收录了从公元前106年到1931年有关翻译研究的重要思想，其中部分文献首次以英文发表，是对翻译研究者知识体系的重要补充。

书中收录的均是原文中有关翻译论述的片断，分别按意识形态的影响、赞助人的作用、诗歌翻译、文化体系、翻译与语言发展和教育、翻译技巧、中心文本和中心文化等主题排列，是翻译研究领域一本不可多得的参考图书。

Preface

AcknOwledgments

Introduction

Anne Dacier: from the introduction to hertranslation of the Iliad

1 The role of ideology in the shaping of a translation

Flaccus Quintus Horatius: from the "Letter to the

Pisones, " also known as the Ars Poetica

Aurelius Augustinus (Saint Augustine) : from "On

the Christian Doctrine"; from the "Letter to Saint

Jerome"

Martin Luther:from the "Circular Letter on

Translation"

August Wilhelm Schlegel: from the "History of

Romantic Literature"

Anne Louise Germaine de Sta61: from the Writings

Victor Hugo: from the preface to the New

Shakespeare Translation

2 The power of patronage

John of Trevisa: from the "Dialogue between a

Lord and a Clerk upon Translation, " printed as

the preface to his translation of the Polychronicon

Jean de Br6che, called de Tours: from the preface to his

translation of Hippocrates

Joachim Du Bellay: from the Dkfense et illustration de

  la langue francaise

Philemon Holland: from the preface to his

  translation of Pliny's The Historic of the World

John Dryden: from the "Dedication" to his

  translation of the Aeneid

Johann Wolfgang yon Goethe: from the "Writings

  on Literature"

Poetics

Etienne Dolet: from "On the Way of Translating

Well from One Language into Another"

Antoine Houdar de la Motte: from the preface to his

translation of the Iliad

Voltaire (Francois-Marie Arouet) : from a letter to

Anne Dacier

August Wilhelm Sch|egel: from "Something About

William Shakespeare on the Occasion of Wilhelm

Meister"

Edward Fitzgerald: from the preface to the

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

Ulrich yon Willamowitz-Moellendorff: from "The

Art of Translation"

 Universe of Discourse

 Nicolas Perrot d'Ablancourt: from the preface to his

translation of Lucian

 Jacques Delille: from the preface to his translation of

Virgil's Georgics

 Pierre le Tourneur: from the preface to his

translation of Young's Night Thoughts

 Antoine Pr6vost, better known as Ahb6 Pr6vost:

from the preface to his translation of

Richardson's Pamela

 Voltaire (Francois-Marie Arouet) : from the preface

 to his translation of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar

  John Hookham Frere: from the preface to his

 translation of Aristophanes

  Dillon Wentworth, Earl of Roscommon: from the

 Essay on Translated Verse

5 Translation, the development of language, and

education

Marcus Tullius Cicero: from "On the Orator";

from "On the Limits of Good and Evil"

Marcus Fabius Quintilianus: from the "Guide to

Rhetoric"

Hieronymus (Saint Jerome) : from the "Letter to

Pammachius"

Roger Bacon: from "On the Knowledge of

Languages"

Juan Luis Vires: from "Versions or Translations"

Jacques Pelletier du Mans- from his "Poetics"

August Wilhelm Schlegel: from "The Works of

Homer by Johann Heinrich Voss"

Percy Bysshe Shelley: from "A Defence of Poetry"

Gaius Caecilius Plinius Secundus: from the

"Letters"

Johann Christoph Gottsched: from the "Critical

Poetics"

Thomas Carlyle: from "The State of German

Literature"

6 The technique of translating

Desiderius Erasmus: from the "Letter to William

Warham"

Antoine Lemaistre: from the "Rules of French

Translation"

George Chapman: from the prefatory texts to his

translation of the Iliad

Alexander Pope: from the preface to his

translation of the Iliad

August Wilhelm Schlegel: from the "Letter to

Herrn Reimer"

Dante Gabriel Rossetti: from Dante and His Circle

Matthew Arnold: from "On Translating Homer"

7 Central texts and central cultures

Sir Thomas More: from the Confutation of Tyndale's

Answer

Anonymous: from "The Translators to the Reader, "

the preface to the Authorized Version

Johann Gottfried Herder: from the "Fragments"

Johann Wolfgang yon Goethe: from "Poetry and

  Truth"; from the "Book of West and East"; from

  the "Writings on Literature"

August Wilhelm Schlegel: from the "Argument

  Between Languages"; from the "History of

  Classical Literature"

Edward Fitzgerald: from a letter to E. B. Cowell

Longer statements

Leonardo Bruni, called Aretino: from "The Right

Way to Translate"

Petrus Danielus Huetius: from "Two Books on

Translation"

John Dryden: from the preface to his translation of

Ovid's Epistles

Jean le Rond d'Alembert: from "Remarks on the Art

of Translating," printed as the preface to his

translation of Tacitus

Charles Batteux: from "Principles of Literature"

Gaspard de Tende, sieur de l'Estaing: from the

"Rules of Translation"

Johann Jakob Bodmer: from the "Ninety-Fourth

Letter" in his "Painter of Morals"

 Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee:

from the Essay on the Principles of Translation

 Wilhelm von Humboldt: from the preface to his

translation of Aeschylus' Agamemnon

 Friedrich Schleiermacher: from "On the Different

Methods of Translating"

 Ulrich von Willamowitz-Moellendorff: from

"What is Translation?", originally written as the

preface to his translation of Euripides' Hippolytus

Bibliographical references

Index