Nec ut interpres, sed ut orator: Ciceronas – vertėjas. Nec ut interpres, sed ut orator: Cicero the translator

Abstract

The article deals with one of the less known areas of Cicero’s work: his translations from Greek into Latin. Such an inquiry on the one hand enriches our knowledge of the author and his attitude toward the Greek original texts; and on the other hand it adds to research into the theory of translation in Antiquity, because Cicero, without doubt, had a great influence on later authors in this field.It is usual to group Cicero’s translations chrono­logically into two main groups, the first belonging to his youth, and the second to the period of his philosophical writings. Without abandoning this principle, in this article we propose a different clas­sification according to the purpose of the translation and the translator’s intention: whether the translation had an educational or didactic purpose, whether it was a complete translation or one only of excerpts, and whether it was intended to function as a separate piece of literature or to be incorporated into Cicero’s own treatises.Translations in both prose and verse were part of the rhetorical training of students, the purpose of which was not to learn foreign languages, but to in­crease competence in one’s own language. Transla­tion was thought to sharpen the mind and to develop the virtutes dicendi necessary for a good orator. For Cicero himself it was one of the means of elevat­ing the Latin language to the level of Greek language and style. Understood in this way, translation was not simple imitation, but a form of cultural enrich­ment. Besides, some of his translations were meant to introduce a notable work by a Greek author to his fellow countrymen, or sometimes to serve as a rhe­torical example for young orators and the critics of Ciceronian eloquence.Cicero uses translated excerpts from Greek au­thors, mainly Plato, widely in his philosophical trea­tises, incorporating them in various ways into his own text. In creating a Roman philosophical prose he regards himself as aemulus Platonis; not simply his disciple or imitator, but rather his rival. It is this aemulatio that reveals a principal aspect of Roman literature as a whole: adopting and using Greek ma­terial and forms to create an essentially new form and, if possible, to surpass the original.Cicero approached his work of translation with the rhetorical principle of suitability (decorum), avoiding, on the one hand, a word-for-word render­ing, and on the other, excessive looseness. Cicero, as an orator as well as a translator, matches every word, rhetorical figure and phrase to the style, conception and situation of the work. This is, to my mind, the meaning of his well known saying Nec converti ut interpres, sed ut orator.