Translation and the Kinship of Languages

In this lecture, Eli Friedlander offers a close reading of Walter Benjamin's celebrated essay "The Task of the Translator," originally written as a preface to Benjamin's translation of Baudelaire's Tableaux Parisiens. Friedlander shows how for Benjamin translation is not about reproducing content but about revealing the kinship between languages, one that points toward what Benjamin calls "pure language." Through vivid metaphors, including the broken vessel, the royal robe, as well as the wall and the arcade, the lecture unpacks how translators must navigate the tension between fidelity and freedom, fragmentation and transparency. Friedlander also connects the essay to Benjamin's broader intellectual project, showing how the emphasis on translation, technological reproduction, and quotation in works like The Arcades Project and writings on Kafka and Proust all reflect Benjamin's resistance to the cult of originality. This resistance, Friedlander argues, carried deep political stakes in the context of rising fascism and reactionary philosophies of life in Germany.