Translation seeks to establish an equivalence of intent between source and target.  This contract is implicit in every act of communication, in the issue and reception of every mode of meaning, be it in the widest semiotic sense or in more specifically verbal exchanges.  To understand is to decipher.  To hear significance is to translate.  Success in translation is measured by fidelity and transparency, the areas where we can also uncover the fatal flaw in the structure of translation.  For this movement, metamorphosis, bridging, has a transitional space, a gap.  And within this profound abyss between source and target, what is lost and what can be found?  This Conference invites you to explore translation as a process or idea and investigate its problems and potentials through research into a topic or theme of your choosing.

Translation is the other side of a tapestry.

- Cervantes

Translation is entirely mysterious. Increasingly I have felt that the art of writing is itself translating, or more like translating than it is like anything else. What is the other text, the original? I have no answer. I suppose it is the source, the deep sea where ideas swim, and one catches them in nets of words and swings them shining into the boat... where in this metaphor they die and get canned and eaten in sandwiches.

- Ursula K. Le Guin

Translation is the art of failure.

- Umberto Eco