2/7 Reflections

I really, really enjoyed Esther Allen's talk on Friday. I loved that she used specific examples of words and their meanings, and how she went about choosing how to translate them (i.e. translating "esperar" into "expectation" vs. just "waiting"). I loved the pictures in her presentation as well, of di Benedetto and of the different, evolving covers of The Silentiary.

As I was reading the play, I first imagined Polar as a man. Then he started talking about his lover, and the man in the play is surprised that he's a black bear when Polar is obviously a polar bear, and there's a joke about being racist. But I was surprised that he was a "he", because I had imagined Polar as a man. And maybe they were gay polar bears, who knows? That's cool. But my initial confusion just serves to make Wei Yu-Chia's (and Jeremy Tiang's) point even further. I haven't read something so funny and so timely in terms of jokes about racism, relationships, global warming, politics, etc. It was refreshing and gripping. I loved it!

"Robert Frost once told an interviewer, “I don’t like foreign languages that I haven’t had. I don’t read translations of things.” So much for taking the road less traveled." --This quote is amazing. That is all.

Jeremy Tiang brings up contradictory yet equally important points: he translated a piece that began in a bar in China, and it was billed "not Chinese enough", as the editors couldn't place that they were in China. He asks why a bar in China should be any different than in America. Then he brings up Crazy Rich Asians, and how a Singaporean man says he doesn't have an accent (with a distinct American accent), stating that Americans see no reason why people on the other side of the world don't sound exactly the same as them. So, when translating to English (and obviously catering towards an American/European audience), what are publishers looking for? American characters in an exotic place? Stories that Americans can relate to, but that are "foreign" enough to publish as a translation vs. just publishing an English book with the same plot? There is clearly a lofty, problematic double-standard here.

Finally, David Bellos' discussion of making translations sound "foreign" was eye-opening to me. I don't read many translations, but I expect that the "foreign-ness" would come from the characters' names, location names, and the overall setting. I also imagine the "foreign-ness" can be communicated in the way characters talk to each other (American/European kids are known to be a bit more disrespectful/casual to their parents vs. the rest of the world, for example), and in the way they think (their philosophy/religious views). Before reading this, if I were to read a translation, I'd be looking for some "worldly" experience or insight into another culture. But this piece made me realize that translations are just stories from people who don't speak English, and that should not be such an "exotic" experience. It should have more of a personal, connecting-with-people-across-the-globe kind of goal. 

 Sarah