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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Nadia Khomami Arts and culture correspondent

‘Translation is an art’: why translators are battling for recognition

a Latin dictionary, a notebook and pen and spectacles
‘Translations don’t just happen on their own,’ says Shaun Whiteside, the former president of the European Council of Literary Translators‘ Associations. Photograph: Esther Calvo Sodric/Alamy

They have often been overlooked in the artistic and literary process, but translators have long claimed they have the power to change everything.

There are tales of myths being born, societies being forged and cities destroyed with just a slip of the pen, such as the supposed translation error that allegedly led to the US deciding to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, or the speculation about life on Mars after the mistranslation of an Italian astronomer.

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