Translation as a Moment of Peace

In proposing some reflections on translation and on the possibility that its exercise will make a moment of “peace” possible, we will proceed by carrying out these four points: 1. After Babel. If the act of translation can be a moment of peace, this moment must be included in the translation as such, in its gesture. Now, to include it in it is the fact that the translation gesture is required when, at a certain point, “one no longer understands each other”. Therefore, our first point will be the analysis of this situation, where “translating” is what we do to understand the plurality in which we live; 2. What truth makes peace possible? Our second point concerns the possibility that the translation “promotes a moment of peace”. This promotion happens because translation is a metaphorical movement of truth, as well as a linguistic transfer. In other words: translating is making metaphors, and metaphor is such because it is transported, where metaphorical indicates the capacity of the metaphor to transport. Now, as we said quickly, in the translation, it is not only the meaning of the words but also the truth, precisely the truth of texts and cultures. This truth that every man and every culture holds is that “value” on recognising which the building of peace is possible; 3. The peace of differences. The third point concerns the question that we consider more important than any other: what does it mean to build peace and live “in peace”? What about the inevitable persistence of differences that are often in conflict? Anyhow: how does the translation allow us to translate the term “peace”? We can answer this question if we observe a character who historically tried to build, albeit translating, peace: we speak of Erasmus of Rotterdam. His figure as a modern humanist is still full of teachings; 4. Identity translated as oikological identity: the contribution of translation to peace. In conclusion, we would like to point out the sense of peace that the translation proposes, a peace that is less the absence of conflict and more the advent of new identities that are constituted together with the other, as we have been taught by two great names that will be evoked in this conference: Matteo Ricci and the aforecited Erasmus of Rotterdam.