Six Key Points to Understand Antoine Berman

It would be naive to think that Antoine Berman, with presenting his studies on translation, wanted to hand over a compiled recipe to translators. Most of his readers have fallen into this trap and taken an inappropriate path. The author of this article, who has devoted a few years of his life to the study of the "essence" of Berman's work, believes that the fundamental problem in encountering the thinker's translatology lies in his "understanding". Berman, as a translatologist, has created an oeuvre. His works are highly mysterious and multi-layered and their "understanding" requires going through a real work of "decryption" which, in its turn, is possible through several "rereadings". This study, inspired by the ideas of contemporary thinkers and those who have criticized and interpreted his works, provides six key points to decrypt and understand  his works: 1) Understanding the fact that Berman's traductology is based on a "project"; 2) Paying attention to the symbolic language of the translatologist; 3) Admitting the fact that Berman is above all a philosopher; 4) Understanding his deep conviction of the fragmented characteristic of language; 5) Having his extreme romantic sensitivity; 6) Becoming aware that there is a religious concern in him. Note that understanding Berman’s works is not limited to these six points.