4/25 Reflections

     I greatly enjoyed having Joanna here for a talk, especially prior to her actual talk when we had an interesting discussion about context, and how much and what sort should be given to the reader to enjoy a poem. After reflecting upon the collaborative part of her talk, I feel like I'm getting closer to understanding why I don't like translating poetry. To her there are so many possibilities and readings that are all possible, but I find it difficult to settle on any one answer. The incredibly wide berth of information she had on Ginczanka also makes the task of translating a poem so much more daunting; there's just so much work that goes into not only making the choices that create the translation, but so much research needed to understand references and context.

    I am also really looking forward to the talk this week, seeing as I enjoyed Translators Revenge quite a bit. After looking through the original French, it's striking that the formatting of the original text isn't quite like the translation. I find changing the format like this results in a more enjoyable experience, the translators notes always being on the bottom, below a bar that separates it from the rest of the translation. I'd love to hear about what sort of thinking led to this more drastic format, and what the translator felt as they attempted to translate this particular book, and maybe about what themes the translator thinks is present in the original, how well they transferred over given the many levels of meta Translators Revenge operates on.

Steven

      Likewise, In Concrete was also a very fun read, but what particularly stood out to me was the frequent use of alliteration and sound matching. I know she writes about it at the end of the book, and she touches upon how the feelings evoked by the original text are due to what is possible in the source language to begin with, but she does also state that there is always a way, a sentiment that I find hard to immediately reconcile with. I'm looking forward to asking Emma about it on Friday.