Translation and Loss-Aversion1

Abstract

This paper is about the inflation of loss talk in a certain discourse on translation and how translation is often presented as a disaster or even an emblem of what is always missing. My guiding questions will be: Why has the notion of loss become such a dominant concept when talking about translation? Where does this rhetoric of loss-in translators' reflections, in translation reviews as well as in scholarly material of theoreticians-come from? What are some of the assumptions that underlie this loss discourse on translation products? Can we go beyond a descriptive perspective of the phenomenon and try to come up with a few explanations for this loss talk on translation? I shall furthermore explore the concept of loss-aversion from economics and decision theory (Kahneman, 2011), and argue that loss-aversion may help us to better understand how the notion of loss, and more generally the gain-loss equation, operate in the field of translation. Finally looking at translation discourse through the losingglass, I will briefly discuss a few "unlosables" from the field of biblical Hebrew translation.