30 September 2024
The International Translator's Day is celebrated all over the world including Russia on September, 30. It is widely celebrated by translators, simultaneous interpreters, specialists in indigenous languages and sign language – all those who allow people to better understand each other and who help to get an information in a language that everyone understands.
This is a celebration of specialists, without whom it is impossible to develop relations between countries, communication between people of different nationalities, and understanding the diversity of cultures.
The importance of the occupation of translators was even noted by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, who called them "post-horses of Enlightenment". But only in 1991 the need for such a professional holiday was first discussed. The initiator was the International Federation of Translators, founded in the middle of the twentieth century in France. The holiday was first celebrated in 1992, and in 2017 the UN General Assembly approved Translator's Day as an international holiday. Since the early 2000s, Translator's Day has been celebrated in Russia.
Translator is a profession that has long been recognized as one of the most prestigious and in-demand. The first translators appeared in Ancient Egypt and already in those early times were highly honored by inhabitants. Experts in foreign languages played a special role in Ancient Greece, which was in close contact with the states of the East.
If interpreters hadn’t contributed so much to translation work, perhaps we wouldn't have so much Bible books in our cultural arsenal. In Ancient Russia, monks-interpreters were considered to be very educated people. Napoleon Bonaparte used to say “A soldier who speaks two languages is worth two men”.
We have a great opportunity to get acquainted with world masterpieces in Russian, but hardly think about who proved us with such a unique chance of reading. Karamzin and Zhukovsky, famous translators, laid the foundations of translation activity in Russia. Pushkin and Lermontov made a significant contribution as well.
Thanks to Zhukovsky, we got know with the best poets of England – Byron, Thomson; poets of Germany – Goethe, Schiller; and of France – Guys, Lafontaine.
Kornei Chukovsky, known as a children's poet and writer, translated for us the outstanding works of Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde and Rudyard Kipling.
We want to congratulate all present and future masters of translation – teachers, students and graduates of Institute of language communication and psychology of the Saint Petersburg University of Management Technologies and Economics on their professional holiday! We wish you to understand your interlocutors at work and to catch the drift of your family and friends – and to enjoy communication from spoken words and sincere conversations.