Prevajanje, še posebej literarno, že tisočletja predstavlja most med posamezniki, skupnostmi in kulturami. Nekateri izzivi ostajajo ves čas enaki, na primer dileme med ustreznimi in sprejemljivimi, ...potujitvenimi in podomačitvenimi, dobesednimi in svobodnimi prevodi; drugi so novejši, mednje nedvomno spadajo dileme aktivističnega prevajanja in uporabe najnovejših prevajalskih orodij, ki temeljijo na umetni inteligenci, in sicer pri prevajanju vseh vrst besedil a morda še najbolj pri prevajanju književnih besedil. Prevajanje je tudi že od samih začetkov družbena dejavnost, odvisna ne le od značilnosti samih besedil in spretnosti ter izurjenosti prevajalcev, ampak tudi od cele vrste zunajbesedilnih dejavnikov, od položaja posameznih jezikov, skupnosti in posameznikov v svetu, do zgodovinskih okoliščin v kulturah, ki so med seboj v stiku, političnih razmer in premikov v razmišljanju ter razumevanju sveta znotraj teh skupnosti ali v svetovnem merilu. Zaradi vsega tega se nam je zdelo pomembno posvetiti posebno številko raziskovanju književnih prevodov.
The following pattern is suggested by a survey of the changing position and reputation of Slovenian literary translation alongside native Slovenian literature during their coexistence from their ...beginnings in the mid-16th century to the end of the 20th century:
In addition to affecting the Slovene education system, the Austrian denationalising policy in the second half of the 19th century had a direct impact on translation. Most of the already scarce ...Slovene philologists were appointed to posts outside the Slovene national territory. The conditions only began to improve in the 1860s, with the translation activity taken up by the first students of the newly established philology courses at the University of Vienna (Ladislav Hrovat, Matija Valjavec, etc.). More often than not, however, the translators were not philologists. The first longer classical texts published in Slovene were individual books of the Homeric epics, Xenophon’s Memorabilia, Plato’s dialogues Apology and Crito, Virgil's Georgics, and Sophocles' Ajax (the complete Bible, of course, had been translated much earlier, but it holds a special place in the history of translation). The translations published as books represent the first Slovene book-format editions of the ancient classics, but most appeared in magazines and newspapers . Many translations met with the same fate as a number of contemporary Slovene classical-language textbooks they remained in manuscript because of insufficient funds (the publishers were unwilling to run the risk of such enterprises, for fear that their investment would not pay), and also because of the national-awakening emphasis on Slovene, which was accompanied by a preference for translating from other modern languages, particularly Slavic ones. A noteworthy example of these unpublished translations is Caesar’s De Bello Gallico as prepared by the Franciscan Ladislav Hrovat. From the beginnings to the present, Slovene translations of the Greek and Latin classics have displayed a marked predominance of poetry, with prose works remaining in the minority.
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