Long before the instauration of hermeneutical translation studies in the 1970s, understanding was considered a prerequisite for translation. Valery Larbaud’s (1881-1957) opus represents an outstanding example for this. It is mainly in his book Sous l’invocation de Saint Jérôme (1946), a collection of short multifaceted works, where the author argues for employing a modern approach to hermeneutical translation theory avant la lettre. For Larbaud, translation constitutes an intellectual, selfreliant work of writing, and it is also a research activity

The doctoral thesis Verstehen verstehen: Modellierung epistemologischer und methodologischer Grundlagen für die Konferenz - dolmetschforschung ausgehend vom Simultandolmetschen in die B-Sprache (Modelling Comprehension in Interpreting Studies: Epistemological and Methodological Foundations for Research on Conference Interpreting; with an Initial Concentration on Simultaneous Interpreting into the B-Language) (Leibbrand2009a/ 2011a) is situated thematically in the discipline of Interpreting Studies (Pöchhacker 2004). After briefly outlining the issues treated in my doctoral thesis, this essay tries to show what contribution the approach called “Hermeneutical Research into Interpreting” (Hermeneutische Dolmetschforschung) can make to the new field of Translational Hermeneutics. In addition, the essay demonstrates how this approach can fecundate the discussion concerning Hermeneutics and Cognitive Science on the one hand and, on the other hand, provide insights into the question concerning whether or not Hermeneutics and Empirical Research are conflicting paradigms. For Hermeneutische Dolmetschforschung, Translational Hermeneutics should not restrict its research to understanding in translation per se; rather it must go beyond this and also explore how understanding itself can serve as a research method and as the foundation for an epistemological attitude. The power and productivity of Hermeneutics for building a paradigm in Translation Studies is not limited to observing and explaining the processes and products of translation. Neither is it limited to contributing to the discussion of methods adopted by the translator/interpreter in translating or interpreting. The question of method includes the questioning individual who is actively and hermeneutically reflecting on his/her own research activities. The new methodology resulting from my investigations is called Verstehende Forschung and it is grounded on the epistemological attitude of Epistemologische Off enheit. Th is methodological approach is qualitative, notquantitative. Hermeneutical Research into Interpreting defines the process of understanding while interpreting (comprehension) as Produktionsorientiertes dynamisches Verstehen. However, the core of this new approach is built by the methodological dimension of Hermeneutics. Therefore, a contribution geared towards solving the LAP-versus-ESP-controversy in Translation Studies lies at the very heart of Hermeneutical Research into Interpreting.

Hermeneutical translation is based on the conviction that one first has to understand a text before being able to present the message once again in another language. The objective is precision in the sense of an authentic presentation of that message in the translation. Th is task requests a dynamical translation competence that interlinks knowledge-based, refl exive and strategic elements. Th e article off ers a systematic description of the factors involved in such a competence. Specifically, it addresses the necessary cultural and technical knowledge, hermeneutical fields of orientation as to how to comprehend texts and formulate their translation, and the issue of the translator’s intellectual growth brought about by lifelong learning and the inter-relation between various translation assignments. Hermeneutical translation competence, which can be presented in a systemic model,proves to be an informed, self-critical, dynamic and fl exibly networking approach to texts and their worlds.

By neglecting to integrate the final step of rhetorics into theory, i. e. pronuntiatio and actio, modern text linguistics passed a theoretical deficit on to modern translation studies. Literary texts must be read aloud in order to realize the acoustic potential programmed into the text by the author. The rhetorical tradition of writing and reading aloud was marginalized in the course of the 18th century when reading became a private and silent affair. Herder’s (and others’) foregrounding of the ‘tone’ or the ‘voice’ in literary texts and their translations is a theoretical attempt to return to the holistic view of text production, integrating performance into the process of literary production and reception. In practice, however, great literary translators always paid attention to the ‘voice in the text’. The tradition of orality – distinguishing precise voices in literary texts – seems to come to an end in Jelinek’s anti-individualistic texts.