Un métier nommé désir1 ? – Du désir de traduire à la légitimité du traducteur

This introduction is a synthesis of the approach we have chosen for this volume. In this day and age, when translation appears to have secured some legitimacy as a profession, the availability of translating tools of all sorts, and the far-reaching evolution of society at large, have multiplied opportunities for non-professional translating. Some of this translating is rather good and much of it is done collaboratively over a broad range of fields. This situation has prompted us to reflect on the will or desire to translate, among both professional and non-professional translators, in relation to the translator’s perception of truth. This urge to translate, however, must be supported by regulatory structures that can make translation less desirable or creative, but certainly more efficient. The risk of eventually seeing translation without translators is not a real one, but we have still to convince the rest of the world that this is so.