The dificult art of translating

I met a most interesting man yesterday – a theologican who, now that he is retired, is translating 13th century latin texts into Danish. He was lamenting the difficulties in finding dictionaries covering his subject. I suggested that he have a look on the Net for suitable electronic works, and the conversation changed to the difficulty of establishing exactly what the writer of the original document wanted to express. I found an article by Anne Catesby Jones which covers many of the pitfalls and ambiguities encountered in translating. These difficulties are the same as can crop up in conversation between people of different nationalities or background and are quite thought provoking!

Re. Latin/Danish dictionaries, there are several, but I am not able to judge how relevant they are for translating 13th Century  church manuscripts. But I found that there are a great many very useful-sounding dictionaries, covering  specialist topics. I plan to have a look at those most relevant to my needs and will post any really good links here as they may be of use to others in the network.