untranslatables

Situating language, linking it to the internal processes of translation that, between Greek, Latin, Slavic and Ottoman influences have made it, is to pose the political – and not just linguistic – stakes of the translation into Romanian of the European Vocabulary of Philosophies (EVP). The first section of the logbook is based on the notes that were prepared for the working seminars on the translations of the Vocabulary at the Fondation de Treilles (Var) in September 2009 and at the University of Rio de Janeiro in November 2009.

The point of departure for these notes is a work, the European Vocabulary of Philosophies. Dictionary of Untranslatables, which Transeuropéennes has decided to accompany in its transformations. So that a logbook of translations of untranslatables might  be maintained by many hands, with everything that a journal can have of the trivial and the thoughtful, the well-stitched and the incoherent - a Denktagebuch as far as is possible.

Toute rencontre de langues et de cultures, toute transmission, tradition, transport, traduction sont d’abord le fait de rencontres occasionnelles suite aux envies des individus. La traduction, tout comme la philosophie, est au début une affaire d’amis et d’amour – philía. Sans cet élan commun vers le grec, et vers les philosophies qui s’y sont produites, toujours à nous séduire et hanter, le portugais n’aurait peut-être pas été abordé dans le premier moment de l’élaboration du Vocabulaire Européen des Philosophies, en France.