Skip to main content

The Study of Literature in Translation

            In the highly diverse and global world we live in today, it is inevitable to come across a translated work. We see it in media and entertainment, anime being an example, for instance; communication in general requires it, as our world is becoming ever more connected – world leaders, business people, journalism; translation has touched all areas of society. Despite the existence of Google Translate, works use– at least the professionally licensed ones – human translators, because translation is not something that can just be quantified, there is no singular right answer or approach to translating a work.

            This problem is exacerbated once we get to historical texts which often uses different a different style of the same language and has a different cultural context. Consider the works of Shakespeare. Even native English speakers can have difficulty comprehending his works – though it is still the same language. Translating historical texts from other languages must also consider this element, for example making the decision on whether to ‘modernise’ the language or not. Again, think of Shakespeare’s works, and remember that there are some versions that attempt to modernise his works into a more colloquial and understandable style – there is even an emoji version of his works, which adapts them into ‘texting style’ (a step much too far in my opinion, but you can judge for yourself: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/series/OGS/omg-shakespeare).

The more popular and praised a story is in a culture, the harder a translator’s job is, really. As text D from the in-class exercise showed, with the controversy surrounding Feng Tang’s Chinese translation of works by Tagore, translators must take care to consider the culture and context of the works they translate, to go beyond just rewriting the story in another language, but to balance between making it understandable for its foreign audience and keeping the original ‘feel’ of the story – to truly capture what the story is trying to present in its unaltered form.

Despite the difficulties of translation, however, the benefits are clear. Audiences get expanded, new perspectives are opened to people all over the globe, the linguistic barriers that separate cultures, ideas, and people, get broken down through translation. With “The Thief and the Dogs”, we are exposed to the context of Egypt during the time of political change, from an insider’s perspective. Without translation breaking down the linguistic barrier for us, we would be separated from the ideas, culture, and story the literary work presents. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

This is Water and Alice Munro Short Stories

Alice Munro’s short stories are usually about women and families from a suburban and or rural setting. She discusses topics such as gender roles and interpersonal relationships, usually from a woman’s perspective. What David Foster Wallace’s theory on education can do with this, is that it allows us, the reader, to adjust our perspective, to be sympathetic to the characters. Although I personally am not a girl growing up in a post-WWII Canadian small town, I can still relate to or at least empathise with the characters and their emotions that Munro has created. In Munro’s stories, her characters tend to have personal flaws or defy the tradition character ideals, for example the narrator in “Boys and Girls”, despite her desire to keep her role helping her father and dislike of the role women are designated for in her family, she ends up subconsciously transforming, until she starts to fit the mould of what her family and society says a woman should be. While we, the audience, may expec...
4 comments
Read more

Ibo Background Assessment

Note: Written from a non-Ibo person perspective, however the person has knowledge of what the Ibo culture is and what their achievements are and is speaking on behalf of it at the Royal Colonial Institute’s annual dinner. Set in the Late Victorian era, as the assignment suggests. Words in-between this: [ ], are explanations of phrases, and would not be said in the actual speech.             Greetings, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Royal Colonial Institute. As you all know, this is a time of great change in this world. In the span of 100 years we’ve gone from walking on foot and horseback, to being able to get to Edinburgh from London in only 8½ hours whilst sitting, in relative comfort. Despite losing America a century ago, the British Empire has grown immensely since then, acquiring massive territories in Africa. Truly, the Sun never sets on the British Empire. But despite your dominance and hegemony over the world, the human...
3 comments
Read more

Podcast Assignment

In class we had to do a podcast about an endangered language. My group, Lingo-radio, featuring Azim, Seo Jung, and myself, did a podcast on Romansch, one of the four official languages of Switzerland. We went for a conversational/natural type of podcast, and based our dialogue on bullet-points, rather than a strict script. Here is the file:
2 comments
Read more