Walter Benjamin and the Experience of Translation

Abstract

This study examines Walter Benjamin's conception of translation through his seminal essay The Task of the Translator, highlighting the relationship between his practical experience as a translator and his philosophical reflections on language and literature. It explores the critical debate, particularly Antoine Berman's observations, concerning the apparent gap between Benjamin's theoretical discourse on translation and his own translational practice, arguing that this paradox reflects the philosophical nature of his project rather than an inconsistency. The study further demonstrates that Benjamin rejects the reduction of translation to the mere transfer of meaning or a communicative act. Instead, he conceives translation as a process that reveals the profound affinity among languages and strives toward what he calls "pure language." From this perspective, translation grants literary works a renewed life by extending their aesthetic existence across languages and cultures. Benjamin's theory therefore offers a philosophical and aesthetic understanding of translation that transcends traditional notions of equivalence and communication, presenting translation as a creative act that revitalizes literary works and enriches linguistic expression.