About St. Jerome, Translators, and Always Doing Our Best

St. Jerome, born around year 347, was a scholar, a theologian and the first truly accomplished translator we are aware of. He translated the Bible into Latin – the Old Testament from Hebrew and the New Testament from Greek. He very much thought about his target audience, just like every good translator should, and did not choose just any version of Latin. He used the one people actually used and spoke at the time, the “Vulgate” Latin. Vulgate means “language of of the common people”. St. Jerome died on September 30, (year 420), hence the celebration of the International Day of Translators on 9/30.

There are many timeless quotes that have been attributed to St. Jerome: “A friend is long sought, hardly found, and with difficulty kept”. “Why do you not practice what you preach”. “True friendship ought never to conceal what it thinks”. My favorite by far, though, is this one:

“Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Till your good is better and your better is best.”

The reason I love this quote is because it describes the attitude so many translators actually embody. Most of them probably never heard about this quote but, still, their passion for learning and improvement permeates their professional careers. Translators often work on a freelance basis, from their homes, far removed from anything that looks or feels like a team that could provide some motivation and support. And yet they live in a highly competitive environment where one needs to work very hard to succeed. The translators we have come to know as our own work family show great self-discipline and desire to go above and beyond. It is amazing, sometimes, to see just how much effort they put into their work and making their skills better – and we are honored to be able to call them our colleagues.

Our vision for what drives our business is similar – continuous learning and improvement – that lead us to achieving success for our clients. If something worked yesterday, it does not mean it will also work tomorrow. What works for one client may not be the best solution for another one. And the technology we did not think could exist is now here and we need to adapt and learn to use it for our client’s benefit. There are countless examples of how we get better each day, how we learn and apply what we know so we can make our “good” far “better” and turn the “better” into the “best” so we can always be proud of what we do.

And so we celebrate all lovers of language who were fortunate enough, just like us, to be able to turn their passion into their profession. But above all, we celebrate and are proud of all those who never stop learning, growing, and achieving. Here is a big thank you and cheers to them!