On this paper I intend to articulate why and how translation, as the act of doing it, can relate to education, in the sense that it is relevant to it, using concepts that not only complement that action, but also define that particular motion.

Opposing what sits in the common knowledge regarding the territory of translation and what I intend to understand about that same territory, I work from Jacques Derrida and Giorgio Agamben —using Paul Ricœur and Walter Benjamin as a starting point— trying to offer the point of view where translation —the action of doing so— is of most importance to the learning process, as it is like a constant construction of change, hence to the educational process itself.

This paper is my first formal attempt at exploring the connection between this concept of translation and the educational process, so as to contextualize the investigation that I’ve been doing within the realm of the doctoral program of the thesis I’m working on. I will try to synthesize in the following points the matters I'd like to discuss in this conference.

I. Translation(s)

First, I'd like to define a certain meaning of translation and its consequences, which, according to Paul Ricœr in his book “Sobre a Tradução”, we can access in two different ways; one that is more constrained, like the verbal message in an idiom which is not the original; and another, wider, as the synonym for the interpretation of any other significant unit within the same linguistic community (Ricœr, 2005). Translation is here considered as a result, a consequence of another thing. This definition of translation, this way of understanding it, works a linear logic, which I believe is the one considered in the common sense. 

It’s not to the these waters of efficiency I intend to invite people in to discuss this concept, but rather to translation as a process, something within two ends. The action of translating and what is implied in this movement, or better, these movements. 

II. The Possible in the Impossible

Exploring the previously mentioned notion of translation —as a process— I'd like to expand this literary context to another, beyond it. In this more vast context, I intend to discuss why a translation —the consecrated act— is impossible, and why, because of its impossibility, is possible. I will concentrate this analysis in the space between an original entity, piece, meaning, which is intended to be translated and the desired translation of it. Inbetween these two moments, there is a movement between them, one which I will like to defend as a limbo, an aporia. Translation holds in itself the perfection. The ideal translation is a hyperbole, but it can be used as it is impossible, so the best translation possible is the best translation possible, it is circumstancial, not something of the absolute. 

III. The Space for Education, The Place of Learning

As the discussion moves from the exploration of the meaning of translation, we will get to the point: acknowledging how the movements of the act of translation move, I will explore why that moving web matters to the educational process. The “how” may tell us “why”. The real translation —something which satisfies its idea of perfection— has a devotion implied in it. The ideal translation pays the debt it holds to the original piece. However, if the ideal translation is impossible, taking granted that perfection is unattainable, the debt is unpayable, never-ending. It is this vastness of what is the non quite, where a possibility to expand emerges, an area to be territorialized, a space to provide a place.

AGAMBEN, Giorgio (2013). “A Potência do Pensamento” in A Potência do Pensamento. Lisboa: Relógio d’Água Editores. AGAMBEN, Giorgio (2015). “O Amigo” in O amigo & O que é um dispositivo?. Chapecó: Argos Editora da Unochapecó. BENJAMIN, Walter (2008). A Tarefa do Tradutor de Walter Benjamin: Quatro Traduções para o Português. Belo Horizonte: FALE/UFMG Faculdade de Letras da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. DERRIDA, Jacques (1993). Aporias. Stanford: Stanford University Press. DERRIDA, Jacques (1998). Monolingualism of the Other; or, The Prosthesis of Origin. Stanford: Stanford University Press. DERRIDA, Jacques (2001). What is a “Relevant” Translation? in Critical Inquiry 27 (174-200). The University of Chicago Press Journals. RICOEUR, Paul (2005). Sobre a Tradução. Lisboa: Edições Cotovia.