The aesthetic approach to language

This aesthetic approach to language has been championed by Benedetto Croce. A basic principle maintained by Croce is that not only formal art, but every human expression is a creation (and so an art). Every translation is a new creation. There’s no re-codification as such, because mere re-codification is not possible. Every translation, every transmission, every act of carrying the message is a new linguistic process and therefore a new creation. Carrying on the message is not a technical work, but an artistic one.

A basic consequence of this approach is that the artistic sensibility has to be present in both sides of the communication process, i.e. in the transmitter as well as in the receiver. You cannot convey art, except to the person who has an aesthetic sensibility. So, aesthetic enjoyment is as artistic as the aesthetic expression. If you have to translate something, you will have to enter into two artistic processes: one is the enjoyment of the meaning; the other is the re-transmission of the meaning. So the translator is doing two processes of creation; not just one but two creations.