Reflections 2/28

 I thought Karen Emmerich and Ersi Sotiropoulos gave a wonderful talk. I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought this, but I wished there was a microphone (or a better one, if one was present) for Ersi to speak into, because her answers were difficult to hear. I couldn't help but draw comparisons to Tracy K. Smith's talk, and how she takes a lot of liberties with her translations, vs. how Ersi and Karen seemed more concerned with capturing the original as closely as possible. It is so interesting to see various translators' takes on their practice, and how no two people think exactly the same. 

As far as the articles go, the LA Times' piece on The Vegetarian interestingly used the word "betrayal", which was brought up on Friday. Karen said that she doesn't like to use the word betrayal, and that she doesn't consider her changes and choices (for the sake of the greater good/an English reader) to be "betrayals". It was interesting that some South Korean critics noted that "English readers had been betrayed". I understand the sentiment, but it seems like too sensitive/critical of an observation-- at least the work (or a close semblance of it) is accessible to a wider audience on some level, right?

Reading about Deborah Smith's humble beginnings and wholesome reason for choosing to translate Korean in the Raw and Cooked article made me even more sympathetic towards her. The Vegetarian was her first translation, which she clearly did to the best of her ability (albeit riddled with mistakes). Tim Cook picking apart these mistakes definitely have merit, but the more petulant side of me is thinking, "could you have done any better?", and the answer is obviously no (as Cook doesn't speak Korean). I think critics of Smith's work should translate The Vegetarian better for the public if they disagree with hers; again, it was her first work, and I think it's only coming under fire because of the acclaim it received.

Hearing Smith's voice in What We Talk About When We Talk About Translation was so interesting after reading the other two pieces. She made great points about moving past the point of just pointing out her translation mistakes and actually doing something about it (a sentiment I made above), and standing by her decision to translate a work she loved, even though she hadn't "mastered" the language. I agree that languages are never "mastered", and if she had waited to translate The Vegetarian until she felt she had perfected Korean, maybe English audiences would've never been exposed to it all. Which would be such a shame.

Also: "It’s [translation's] also perhaps the only art that can be not just bad, but wrong, and will never not be flawed" is SUCH a good quote <3 Sums things up very nicely. 

 Sarah