I find Carpenter's metaphor of translation as painting a picture very interesting. Based on this metaphor, I thought that as a translator, we should not be allowed to paint a different color than the original author wants, but we actually did that all along. When language doesn't work the same way, we have to consider changing something (maybe shades of colors, in this metaphor) to make the translation comprehensible for the target audience. When jokes don't convey the same meaning, we change it entirely like the example of Tokugawa Ieyasu and Buddha. This would be changing the color and the dress in the painting. We did it all along, and different painting by different translator would have different shades and color too.
Another thing I find really interesting is the case of the murder mystery novel where she was asked if a plot twist would make a translator re-translate some parts before the revelation, and Carpenter said that you must understand the text to translate and never let that happen. I wonder, though, if the text is instead serialized and you can't know what's going to happen next. Could some details you decided it was extra and would let it lost in translation become crucial later in the story? What would the translator do if this happens?
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