The Role of Translation in Dialogue among Civilizations

Abstract

Translation brings cultures closer. In our globalized world, translation is the key to understanding and learning foreign cultures. This study is an attempt to show the mutual relationship existing between culture and language and to review various opinions in this respect. Differences among cultures and civilizations as well as the effect of translation in linking different beliefs, languages, religions, thoughts and cultures and in facilitating the process of dialogue among civilizations are studied considering anthropological aspects of cultural differences and translatability vs. untranslatability of cultural elements within Whorf's and Chomsky's theoretical frameworks.