“Think, by analogy, of individuals living in a series of tall closed towers, all erected over a common foundation. When they try to communicate with one another, they shout back and forth, each from his own closed tower. It is difficult to make the sound penetrate even the nearest towers, and communication proceeds very poorly indeed. But, when an individual goes down his tower, he finds himself in a great open basement, common to all the towers. Here heestablishes easy and useful communication with the persons who have also descended from their towers. Thus may it be true that the way to translate […] is not to attempt the direct route, shouting from tower to tower. Perhaps the way is to descend, from each language, down to the common base of human communication – the real but as yet undiscovered universal language.”

Weaver 1955

Eene, ne krakebdeyn ys arnabaodora nas slasvrogodyr baand a'arnaelidora ineyn ne brakdyeyn vyr zok menaangeyn (anrarmidora) inne brabeeleles anda korkeyelidora, slkordang inkraeyn uelger ur aymergred megoiel rarmeyn ineyn ddeor mideroiel kirroer. Megoi inne nad invdrikd kirroereyn ys anrarmidora. Gnislegge areyn nad angebregred ys ne megoi sid arnarer ard, nas geyrang arnarerreki anrarmidora kna vi ineldereg, arnararmeg, godardeg. Arnaelidora, an soeyn kie, areyn slere nad ineyn in slasnsdyoang, eynorasang rarke, gdydeyrang a'ne basovoelodyr ys na eyeldomidi kravergreki ys inelel kammeynokidora, veyd ineyn in kradaneyiel brakdyeyn ys arnabaodora sid eleigeyn a'noa, slasvrog, megoiel rarm.

Inelel anrarmidora areyn sleyvjekdeg a'soeyn arnabaodora ineyn ard bisdy rram rai didi a'naaser.


FLUSSER STUDIES 06
Michael Darroch
Language, Translation, and the Telematic City

1. Benjamin, Walter (1968). “The Task of the Translator”, in: Illuminations, Translation by Harry Zohn, New York: Schocken Books
2. Derrida, J. (1985). “Des Tours de Babel”, in: Difference in Translation. Joseph F. Graham (ed.), Ithaca and London: Cornell UP
3. Gunkel, D. (1999). “Lingua ex machina: Computer-Mediated Communication and the Tower of Babel”, in: Configurations 7(1)
4. Weaver, W. (1955). “Translation.” In: Machine Translation of Languages, William N. Locke and A. Donald Booth (eds) Cambridge, MA: MIT Press