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The great reputation of George Steiner was attributed to the foundation of the hermeneutic translation theory, which has swept the West since its birth. In 1975, Steiner elaborated the nature of the linguistic translation researches, translation tasks and aims. Moreover, he explained other important points in his book of After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation. The book has helped Steiner acquired a great reputation, at the same time, it was known as a “Milestone Work” of the language and translation theory.

Trust

Steiner indicates that trust is the first step for the interpretation process. The translator will select a text which he thinks is valuable before the process of translation. From Steiner’s point of view, it is risky for the translator to choose a text, which is like an adventure, and he confirms that the translated text must be valuable and meaningful. Translators can choose texts according to their own interest. Moreover they should be enthusiastic towards the translated works and ardently love them. Only in this way can they take the responsibility of translating the source text. Nevertheless, they can also choose texts for certain translation institutions or companies, such as the part of their translation jobs, even for political and social reasons. In a word, the translator must bear in mind that the source text should be full of significance when they decide to choose the source text. Another factor of trust is the translator’s language ability. This factor is overwhelmingly important. Translators not only need to be proficient in the source language, but also have the ability to fluently translate the source language into the target language. At the same time, translators must also be familiar with the source culture and the target culture behind the language.

Aggression

Aggression refers to the stage of the translator’s understanding of the original work. There are great differences in the translator’s linguistic and cultural background, thinking, writing techniques and life experience. In the process of translating the original text, the expression of personal literary consciousness is unavoidable. Therefore, in the process of expression, there will be contents beyond the text, which is the invasion in the text. In Steiner’s view, in the process of translation, the translator invades and extracts the original work, and takes it for himself. In the process of interlingual translation, comprehension exercises are obviously aggressive and destructive. Steiner once compared translation to “open-pit mines, which leave scars in the landscape after mining”.

Incorporation

At this stage, the translator’s task is to translate the content of the original text that cannot be understood by the target language readers into the comprehensible one. Faced with different linguistic, social and cultural backgrounds, different translators will use different translation strategies. According to Steiner, there are two main ways to incorporate, called foreignization and domestication. In the process of translating, the translator absorbs the form and meaning of the original text. It not only reflects the incorporation of the basic semantics and structure of the original text, but also reflects the translator’s subjectivity by adding new elements into the translated version.

Compensation

Without the fourth stage, the entire cycle is incomplete. From a cognitive point of view, the translator begins to siege and invade the original text, thus unbalancing the whole system. Therefore, this interpretation needs to be compensated. Real interpretation must be mediated and exchanged in order to restore balance, and the most common method of compensation is adding footnotes. In addition, adjustment of semantic structure and other means can be used to restore the balance between the original and the translation.