Today is International Translation Day (ITD).
September 30th was declared ITD on May 24,2017, when the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 71/288 on The role of language professionals in connecting nations and fostering peace, understanding and development.
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| Official FIT ITD 2019 poster |
September 30th is also the Day of the Feast of Saint Jerome, in the Catholic Liturgical Calendar. The Feast of Saint Jerome is the day that FIT (the Fédération Internationale des Traducteurs / International Federation of Translators) initially selected for ITD, which was celebrated for many years prior to UN recognition. The Day of the Feast of Saint Jerome was selected, because Saint Jerome is known to have provided the first translation of the bible from the Old Testament in Hebrew to Latin, in the 4th century AD. Saint Jerome’s Latin version of the bible is known as The Vulgate (meaning "the commonly used" version of the bible). At that time, during the 4th century AD, a Greek translation of the Old Testament in Hebrew existed. The Greek translation of the Old Testament in Hebrew was called The Septuagint (meaning "the 70" or the version translated by 70 scholars), which Saint Jerome was also commissioned to revise by the Pope Damascus I.
The theme for this year’s celebration of ITD is connected to the celebration of 2019 as the International Year of Indigenous Languages (IYIL 2019). A year of celebrations launched at the UNESCO, at the beginning of 2019, on January 28, in Paris. IYIL2019 is intended both to raise awareness and to mobilize action on preserving endangered languages, estimated at 40% of the existing 6700 world languages. Indigenous languages support cultures and knowledge systems that are usually marginalized both politically and economically. Thus, in celebrating Indigenous languages as this year’s theme for ITD, the focus is on the capacity for translation both to include speakers of indigenous languages in larger conversations in support of their rights, and to widen access to services and information in indigenous native languages.
Indigenous languages and the people who speak them contribute to the knowledge, wealth and diversity of the global community. For example, indigenous knowledge (IK) in patenting activity is a striking example of both the extent of the indigenous contributions, and how translation might be of specific service to the causes that are being celebrated.
Indigenous knowledge (IK) also termed Traditional Knowledge (TK) is often passed down from one generation to the next in an oral tradition. For the purposes of determining the patentability of an invention, inventors and examiners are required in part to research the prior art of the claimed invention, arising in print. When none of the knowledge is printed, indigenous communities lose their claim to prior art and to a potential invention, plus all the financial and economic advantages that might ensue, after the patent is granted. In Vandana Shiva’s terms, this is more than loss, it is theft or "plunder" (e.g.; Shiva, 2000).
Accordingly, certain US and European patents (e.g.; US5401504, EP436257) have been revoked, once the prior art was brought in as printed evidence, translated to an official language of the patent-granting agency, for re-examination. Likewise, the archiving of IK has begun at such institutions as India's TKDL (Traditional Knowledge Digital Library) and the UN WIPO TK (Traditional Knowledge) portal, where the IK is also translated to the official languages of the Intellectual Property [IP] Offices, enabling IK databases to be searched for prior art.
References
History World
ITD 2019 - FIT - (Fédération Internationale des Traducteurs / International Federation of Translators)
India – TKDL – Traditional Knowledge Digital Library
Saint Jerome
Shiva, V. (2002) Protect or plunder: Understanding Intellectual Property Rights. London, UK: ZED Books.
UN – ITD – International Translation Day
UN – Resolution 71/288 – May 24, 2017 - The role of professional translation in connecting nations and fostering peace, understanding and development
UN- UNESCO –IYIL - 2019 Year of Indigenous languages
WIPO – World Intellectual Property Organization – Traditional Knowledge http://www.wipo.int/tk/en/tk/
US5401504 Use of turmeric in wound healing
