The practice of rendering meaning across language boundaries — which preserved ancient Greek philosophy for the Islamic world, returned it to Europe for the Renaissance, transmitted the Bible across civilizations, and enabled the Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, and every subsequent exchange of ideas across cultural borders — and without which the connected world we inhabit would be impossible.
Almost everything you know came through a translator. Aristotle reached medieval Islam through Arabic translators working from Syriac intermediaries. It returned to Europe through Latin translators working from Arabic. The Bible's words were translated into Greek, then Latin, then German, then English — each translation a theological and political act. Newton's Principia was translated before most European scientists could read it. Without translation, there is no connected intellectual history — only isolated civilizations talking to themselves.