{"id":34522,"date":"2026-02-03T10:33:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T09:33:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.act-translations.com\/propaganda-and-manipulation-when-translation-shapes-politics\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T14:40:40","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T13:40:40","slug":"translation-and-propaganda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.act-translations.com\/en-us\/translation-and-propaganda\/","title":{"rendered":"Propaganda and manipulation: When translation shapes politics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Translating literature is a fine art. But time and again, it is also abused to manipulate people. With the world getting more interconnected, the problem may have become smaller, but historically this method has caused a lot of damage. While this used to be effective, it often feels almost comical nowadays. Here are some of the most striking examples. <\/em><\/p>\n\n

The debate over whether texts should be translated literally or rather reflect their meaning is more than 2,000 years old. Politician Cicero and poet Horace already addressed this issue in the first century BC. This issue was a hot topic at the time. Many Greek texts were being translated into Latin, which was considered to be a prestigious cultural project. The two men agreed on one thing: They criticized literal translation as \u201cslavish.\u201d In their opinions, translators should preserve the original intent of the text but adapt the ideas and impact to the respective audience. It is the oldest known description of transcreation. <\/p>\n\n

The idea has become widely accepted. Nowadays, books are only translated word for word if they are study editions intended to reveal the structure and grammar of the original version. <\/p>\n\n

But the downside to this approach is that translations can be used in a targeted manner to achieve political goals. History is full of examples of this tactic. Some of them are so grotesque that it is worth shining a spotlight on these humorous gems. <\/p>\n\n

Religious writings: Cementing power<\/h2>\n\n

The Bible is a prime example here. Ironically, this is the very book that has undergone several excellent translations. For example, the European colonial powers faced a dilemma with this book. Some passages are quite harsh, such as Ephesians 6:5: \u201cSlaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling (…).\u201d By contrast, the Book of Exodus talks about liberation from slavery. For the bible editions in African languages, the translators found \u201csolutions\u201d that are rather questionable from today\u2019s perspective. They simply excluded the Book of Exodus and changed the text of the Epistle to the Ephesians to: \u201cYou workers, obey your European masters with reverence (…).\u201d They also made a few minor changes in the Epistle to the Romans. Instead of \u201cLet every person be subject to the governing authorities,\u201d 13:1 was changed to: \u201cAll should follow the laws of the government and the instructions of the colonial officials.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

Having said that, this method of disinformation also works in the opposite direction. Religious Hindu texts and African myths were translated by British and French colonial officials, but in a way that made them appear particularly primitive. And it just so happens that the names of some of their gods were changed to Jehovah. <\/p>\n\n

The Quran already suffered from this revisionist treatment in 1143, when Abbot Petrus Venerabilis commissioned a translation into Latin that read more like a paraphrase and polemical commentary. After all, he had to make sure that Christians did not get the crazy idea that Islam might be interesting. And that was only the beginning. Until modern times, the Quran was translated into European languages in a way that portrayed Islam as backward and threatening, which effectively influenced public opinion. Sometimes only individual terms were translated imprecisely, while in other cases there were massive changes to the entire content. <\/p>\n\n

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World literature: Manipulation supports ideology<\/h2>\n\n

The masterpieces of world literature did not fare any better. William Shakespeare\u2019s plays offer some particularly bizarre examples of this misuse. A few deviations in the text and channeling the reader\u2019s attention into a specific direction makes the impact particularly effective. <\/p>\n\n