Translation As Interpretation: Rashi's Use of French in his Commentary to the Torah
R ashi incorporated close to three hundred French words into his Torah commentary. Studies of Rashi's French have faced two principal challenges. First, the dearth of authoritative manu scripts has necessitated a great deal of attendon to the task of recon structing the precise French words Rashi intended. Second, that Rashi employs French translation only infrequently, poses the question of what particular purposes French words were intended to serve. Optimally, translation strives optimally for complete semantic equivalence. A good translator attempts to represent all definitional, euphonic, etymological, and connotative information from the source language into the target language. Such equivalence is recognized gen erally to be an unattainable goal. A translator who selects certain ele ments over others to retain in translation does so with a purpose. It is in that selective Drocess that a translation becomes an internretation. Rashi