4/11

 I as usual, had a great time meeting the speaker before the talk, but I do wish I had thought of the questions I now have after the talk, mostly about more technical issues Boris might have faced during the transfer from Russian to English, things like the change in rhyme, the loss of word order, and other issues of the like, but in hindsight those questions would have likely detracted from the impact of the talk as a whole. It was an entertaining and enlightening look into the mind of a translator of poetry, who clearly loves the original work more than I could imagine. His more intuitive approach to the translation as a whole seems to run along similar rails as another poetry translator that we had the pleasure of listening to earlier this semester, although I suppose in his case that the end result is less influenced by the personal experiences he himself has had, and more of replicating the feeling that he received from his own reading of the original text. In a sense perhaps, the difference lies in the alchemy of the translation, and the ingredients used to make the translation. It certainly gave me a lot to think about.

Of the articles I found Bassnett's article the most interesting, as I find myself enjoying the more technical aspects of translation lately, while the other article by Derrida, which I recall having read last semester, seems to elicit the same response in me; I enjoy the eras described and for the most part agree, and that is mostly it. On the translation "controversy" however, I find myself having very split feelings. It's hard to envision what I would personally do if I was ever in such a situation, and it seems as if being in such a situation in the first place would be something I would almost certainly never find myself in, but I can't help but feel as if there isn't an answer to the problem as it were. At the end of everything, I can't help but feel that none of what anyone says matters so long as the author wants a particular person to be their translator. It is my very simple and extreme solution to an unfortunate and complex issue, one that I hope I never find myself facing, and one that I will do my absolute best to avoid. 

 Steven