9月30日国际翻译日（International Translation Day）在今年以前是由国际译联FIT(International Federation of Translators) 公关委员会提出。 从1992年开始，国际译联根据国际形势的发展，每年提出不同的翻译日主题，并发布主题文章，各国翻译组织和翻译工作者在国际翻译日前后举办各种活动进行庆祝。这是一个表达翻译职业自豪感的日子。
但是，从今年开始，联合国大会正式确立了这个节日。2017年5月24日，第71届联合国大会一致通过第A/71/L.68号决议，将每年9月30日正式确定为“国际翻译日”。
2017年国际翻译日的主题是“翻译和多样化” （Translation and Diversity ), 国际译联盟对这个主题的阐述如下：
In our digital world, a product or service is often marketed in many countries, and information appears to flow instantly across most national boundaries. Yet we don’t want other societies to impose their way of thinking on us. How does translation relate to the desire to access everything while retaining diversity?
Cultural diversity is closely tied to linguistic diversity. Losing your language means losing a part of your cultural identity. Translation is important both to maintaining and learning from a culture.
Globalisation brings greater international cooperation, but the downside of that can be cultural homogenisation, which in turn threatens diversity. In an effort to access global markets effectively, products and services are often translated with sensitivity to the target culture, rather than imposing the culture of the source content. This type of translation, called localisation, thus supports diversity.
Language transcends physical barriers of distance, borders and time. Translation of literature and other culture-specific material, such as foreign film through subtitling and dubbing, is different from localisation. In contrast to localisation, this type of translation typically aims to open a window to the source culture, and thus helps share local insights and alternative views of the world, giving the experience of another culture through one’s own language.
Both localisation and source-culture-specific translation are challenging intellectual tasks that involve much more than mechanically matching up the words and phrases of two languages. Only skilled human translators are able to perform these creative types of translation, which help us maintain our own culture and learn from other cultures, respectively.
Each culture in the world should be in control of its destiny. By promoting diversity of cultures and languages, we can hope to create a bright and colourful world, full of possibilities for learning, growing and sharing a peaceful vision for humanity based on mutual respect. We thank translators for their contribution to diversity as we celebrate International Translation Day 2017.
