Translating as bordering. An encounter with the foreign

Both translation and border are social relations, or more precisely, social relations with some otherness that is perceived as foreign. While the term “translation” embraces its processual meaning (translation as action of translator) and the meaning of its result as well (e.g. the fi nal text), borders, taken in their immediate meaning, suggest givenness, factuality, the result. Hence, we would rather talk about bordering as that historical process which establishes a relation with something different or foreign. The idea is to stress the historical origin of borders: they are not given, but rather a product of human action. In other words, each border has its “translator”.