International Translation Day is celebrated every year on the 30th of September. Has this date been chosen randomly from a calendar, looking for a free spot in time when no category of people was yet honoured?

Actually, no. In fact, rumour has it that, like all other human beings, translators are not saints, but they have one: St. Jerome, whose feast is on this particular day. He was the Bible translator and he is considered the patron saint of all translators. Since the year of its foundation in 1953, FIT – the International Federation of Translators – has been promoting the celebrations, but 1991 represents the most important year: they plunged the idea of an officially acknowledged International Translation Day. They wanted to formally introduce to the world the figure of the professional translator and linguist, a role that has always been so crucial in helping people communicate for centuries. Even though celebrating it on a Christian day seemed reduced only to Christian-oriented countries, this has never been the case at all. All translators, no matter what race, religion, country they come from, have the chance, on International Translation Day, to show to the world how important their profession is, especially since the beginning of the era of globalization, when more and more people from different “worlds” have the chance, and even more often the need, to understand each other.

The theme chosen for this year International Translation Day is “Language Rights: Essential to all Human Rights”. What does it actually entail? Such thing as “Language rights” may not have been heard by many, but it exists and it is fundamental when it comes to Human Rights. Every human being should have an intrinsic right to dignity, freedom, justice, health and peace and having all the required tools to protect those rights is very important: often translators, interpreters and language specialists can play an essential role and guarantee the necessary transparency in all sort of situations which put a human being in jeopardy. It is not just a matter of language, but also of cultures: language professionals are trained not only to translate a language into another, but to modulate it in order to make it perfectly understandable to the other party.

For more information about FIT and the International Translation day please visit www.fit-ift.org.

Good Bye! Au revoir! Hasta luego! Auf Wiedersehen! Da svidànija! Maha-s-salâmati! Arivederci! Kwaheri!