10/5 Reading Comments

I found the readings this week to be quite insightful. Carpenter's comments on the certain key elements one should pay close attention to are particular useful, providing another approach to the difficult task that is translating. I quite liked the analogy of how translating is sort of like coloring in a picture. A translator's job is to provide both the skeletal structure of an original text (making sure the integrity of the content is maintained), while also breathing life into it. We're allowed to decide the color with which to fill in the picture and perhaps even add small details that don't take away from the piece as whole, but you can't take out somebody that is already there. The outline provided must be followed.

I also thought the section where Carpenter brings up Arthur Binard was interesting. A special case where the original author was also the translator for the poetry. According to Carpenter, Binard only mentioned his mother one time in the English version whereas in the Japanese version it was mentioned several times. His reasoning was that mentioning his mother too many times in the English version would make it seem that he had a mother complex. It's interesting how cultural differences make it so that in one language it would be perfectly normal to mention the same subject multiple times over and over, and in another language it would seem obsessive. Since Binard was the translator for his own poetry, obviously not all translators will be able to alter the original content as much as Binard has done so during the translation process. Carpenter asserts the point that creativity plays a big role in translation. A translator must play around with combinations of words and ways that things can be said to eventually arrive at a satisfactory or perhaps a compromised solution.

Overall, the readings were quite enjoyable to read. I was kind of shocked that the whole process of translating and editing took just over three years as mentioned during the interview text. Goes to show just how arduous translating can be. Though, also quite rewarding and fun according to Carpenter.