Relational description as pivotal to dialogical translation

Abstract Depending on whether translation leans toward objective rendering or subjective interpretation it will have different truth-functions. This essay reflects on the issues of truth-function at stake on both sides of the “hosting” language (translation) when seeking to understand “otherness” (original language). The essay will draw from particular examples of translation of Chinese thought such as the literal renderings of the Classics in Western languages, Li Zehou’s concept of “subjectality” ( zhutixing 主體性) and François Jullien’s Western-inverted “deconstruction”. The point here is not to establish validity in translation, but to describe what are the cognitive and ethical implications when understanding and performing translation – a relational description thus presented as precondition for the possibility of translation-as-dialogue.