Until late in the 20th century, the standard among publishers was to keep the translator invisible, maintaining the illusion that the translation was the original text. But the translator is never invisible. Translation requires a million choices, and this work happens in the context of the translator's historical moment, education, cultural and political context, and the requirements of the employer who has hired them.
Three examples of context
Here are three texts that whose translators inadvertently (or perhaps consciously) changed the meaning of the original:
What about
Could there have been the potential, given the subject, style, or intent of for the translator's biases to affect the text? These effects will often be subtle, but can nonetheless be meaningful. The translator is always part of the translation.
The original text has a historical context, but so does the translator and translation.
Historical events, technologies, and dominant preoccupations can all affect what the translator is likely to notice in a text
A translator's role and purpose might change with the historical moment. Translations done in peacetime have a different sensitivity to certain topics than those done during a war.
Though translators often aspire to give themselves over to the texts, their ideology will still factor in how they read and what they notice
Many texts (the Bible is a notable example) use language that can be interpreted in different ways; a translator's ideology, if they're not careful, will likely dictate their choices when translating
A translator might intentionally alter texts to fit better with the ideology of their readers
A translator's social and cultural context, including their education, their nationality, and their literary context, will affect their reading of foreign texts.
Translators from colonially dominant countries may have preconceptions of literature from the colonies
A cultural context might encourage certain reframing for a domestic audience
Some cultural contexts might limit the translator's ability to access or understand the original language and culture.
Published translations are often subjext to oversight from the publisher or commission requirements.
A translator might be asked to make a text more familiar to the reader, in the hope of selling more books.
A publisher might impose a structure or grouping they think will help readers.
Translation is the most obviously recognizable type of rewriting, and … it is potentially the most influential because it is able to project the image of an author and/or those works beyond the boundaries of their culture of origin
Another Real World Example
In 1983, Ewald Osers translated The Meaning of Hitler by Sebastian Haffner, described by the publisher (Harvard University Press) as "a remarkable historical and psychological examination of the enigma of Adolf Hitler—who he was, how he wielded power, and why he was destined to fail."
Consider Ewald Oser's biography:
Ewald Osers was born in Prague in May 1917 to a secular Jewish family. From Stepanska gymnasium, he went on to study chemistry at a German University, where he started translating Czech poetry to German and joined a left-wing literary group called Blok. He published his translations and his own verses in the radical quarterly U, until he moved to London in 1938. He would not see his homeland again for 27 years; he met his mother for the last time in spring 1939. At the outbreak of WWII, he joined the BBC Monitoring Service. He was married in 1942 to a classically English woman, Mary Harman. He enjoyed working in different sections of the World Service until his retirement in 1977. He died in 2011 in Reading.
When reading Oser's translation of The Meaning of Hitler you might expect:
What other questions might you ask about Ewald Osers to be better able to contextualize the translation?
What if there's no Known Translator?
The Bible is a big culprit here. Translating the Bible could be dangerous and was often done by a group. Academic papers are often translated by specialized services and with the help of machine translation. Some publishers still go out of their way to obscure the translator's name.
Even if a specific translator isn't known, the same contextual considerations apply. The year the translation was done will provide context, as well as the intention behind it (scholarly, commercial, artistic).