<P> Throughout the 18th century, the watchword of translators was ease of reading . Whatever they did not understand in a text, or thought might bore readers, they omitted . They cheerfully assumed that their own style of expression was the best, and that texts should be made to conform to it in translation . For scholarship they cared no more than had their predecessors, and they did not shrink from making translations from translations in third languages, or from languages that they hardly knew, or--as in the case of James Macpherson's "translations" of Ossian--from texts that were actually of the "translator's" own composition . </P> <P> The 19th century brought new standards of accuracy and style . In regard to accuracy, observes J.M. Cohen, the policy became "the text, the whole text, and nothing but the text", except for any bawdy passages and the addition of copious explanatory footnotes . In regard to style, the Victorians' aim, achieved through far - reaching metaphrase (literality) or pseudo-metaphrase, was to constantly remind readers that they were reading a foreign classic . An exception was the outstanding translation in this period, Edward FitzGerald's Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (1859), which achieved its Oriental flavor largely by using Persian names and discreet Biblical echoes and actually drew little of its material from the Persian original . </P> <P> In advance of the 20th century, a new pattern was set in 1871 by Benjamin Jowett, who translated Plato into simple, straightforward language . Jowett's example was not followed, however, until well into the new century, when accuracy rather than style became the principal criterion . </P> <P> As a language evolves, texts in an earlier version of the language--original texts, or old translations--may become difficult for modern readers to understand . Such a text may therefore be translated into more modern language, producing a "modern translation" (e.g., a "modern English translation" or "modernized translation"). </P>

Concept of translation in the west and in the indian tradition