translators of the world unite

Translatating epic works is as old as the hills;no, as pen and paper,lets say.I was never one for translations or reading translated works.Used to believe everything one needs to learn/appreciate was available in Tamil,English, to some extent Hindi!Yes, i had a tunnel vision.Believed in the unique flavour of each language which cannot be truly brought out into a different language.Was generalising the intrinsic flavour of tamil language which one gets to savour and enjoy.It has the culture angle also to it i guess.
But then it was long long ago.We used to have very good short stories translated from Bengali or Telugu featured in Kalaimagal and Kalki.The themes used to be very serious and the way it was handled too would be very professional.Hence i came to associate translations as very heavy stuff;to be read when one could handle serious stuff.They were very good and brought the period and tenor of living of people in those regions to your study table,as it were.I would not have known or appreciated those authors but for the translators.
Understood the power of translation when i came to know Rabindranath Tagore got his noble prize not for his bengali Gitanjali but for its English translation!No need to market the power of translation any further,isnt it?
But then today we are not talking of those translators who are into literary stuff.
They are everywhere if not physically,virtually in cyberspace.I am told there is a big market for instantaneous translation of talks/sppeches of leading politicians in the cyberspace.(Not for me though)There is intense need for document translation with commerce across language/time barriers making a big thrust.Wonder how ancient Arabs traded with Indians their superior horses!may be everything was in cash;i mean in kind; lots of spices and silk fabrics in return. Spot settlement and not contract based i guess.There needs to be quality control checks on the translated documents too because of the critical nature.(see a brand new position is born here)
I remember a story here which is very relevant i assure you.There was this politician who went to Russia to deliver a lecture to the "aamjan" there.He had an interpreter who used to wait for pauses and then do the translation.Our friend wanted to end the talk with a story and a punch joke in the end.He narrated non stop for 10 minutes and then stopped only after the story was over.He was eagerly waiting for the translation and then the laugh at the end of it.He was surprised when his entire story was condensed in one sentence and the audience spontaneously burst out laughing.He asked the translator,your language appears to be fantastic,it can condense 10 minute talk into one sentence.To which the translator said,it is very simple; all i told them was we have here a very important guest and he has told a joke,please laugh immediately!
A recently concluded Basha 2005 in the city recently concluded by saying there are more than 13000 languages in the country, with 13 official languages and any number of languages without script.If we have Rabindra nath tagores in any or all of these languages,it can keep the translator machine running full throttle till the end of the century!