The Dialogue on Translation between a Lord and a Clerk, or Dialogus inter dominum et clericum, was written by John Trevisa.
Along with the dedicatory Epistle, it forms the introduction to his 1387 translation of the Polychronicon of Ranulf Higden, commissioned by Trevisa's patron, Lord Berkeley.
Written in Middle English, it consists of a series of arguments made by the clerk on why books should not be translated from learned languages such as Latin, each one followed by a rebuttal from the lord.
One interpretation, based on the victor of the dialogue and its context in prefacing a Latin translation, is that Trevisa speaks through the lord figure.
[1] In the Dialogue, the lord commissions a prose translation of Higden's Polychronicon, which the clerk initially refuses and eventually accepts.
Trevisa uses the dialogue in order to criticize the "grete mischief" of knowledge remaining inaccessible due to language.
"[11] Stephen Morrison and Aude Mairey note that the Dialogue demonstrates awareness of the social and political implications of vernacular translation.
[25] At the start of the dialogue, when alluding to the Tower of Babel, Trevisa presents two solutions to the challenge of "translingual" communication: translation and a universal language, Latin.
[28] His theories regarding translation were in accordance with the aims of the early Christian Church, which emphasized ""serving" the source text" and preserving original meaning.