Ted’s talk was informal yet insightful, including substantial audience participation and a discussion on cultural equivalence. I can tell that Ted favors domestication and thus finds himself on the opposite side of the foreignization-domestication spectrum than Ken, although they both are adamant about not including footnotes. I enjoyed all the translation metaphors Ted gave like creating an artisanal product, playing music, and walking a tightrope, and I thought the way he differentiated “koi” and “ai” in the excerpt he read was clever. I also appreciated his observation that when people critique translations, they often immediately focus on word-for-word mistakes instead of also considering overarching elements like voice and rhythm. I wish that Ted had read us more excerpts from the book he was translating so we could have dived into further challenges he faces when working with Japanese and English. Although he gave some vague answers to questions, he was easygoing and charismatic, inviting active engagement from the audience and creating a comfortable environment. I look forward to reading his upcoming translation and respect the work he’s done for Monkey (Business).
About the readings for this week, “A Simple Soul” by Gustave Flaubert tells a compassionate tale about the always-giving Félicité as she is faced with never-ending loss and pain. I had never read a piece by Flaubert before this, and when I looked up the title of the story, I was surprised to find that it has also been translated as “A Simple Heart” from Un cœur simple, which I would love to discuss tomorrow. I am not sure who translated the version that we read and am curious how it relates to James Wood, but I enjoyed the archaizing touches that place readers in the mid-nineteenth century. I learned that a “chemise” is a woman's undergarment, a “peal” is the loud sound an organ or bell makes, and “fell” means to knock something down, like “felling a dragon” in the story. I also liked the alliterative rhythm throughout the piece, particularly in phrases like “woman wearing widow’s weeds” and “rotund and ruddy.” This story highlights simplicity's depths with both sadness and irony, nodding to the loneliness, spirituality, and class differences that Félicité faces with an open—and simple—heart.
James Wood's reviews made me want to read both Nights of Plague and The Wall. Wood does a great job of unveiling the plot with descriptions of character development and possible larger themes, but he does not really speak about the novels being translations. He notes that Ekin Olap translated Nights of Plague and that Amanda Prantera translated two novels by Marlen Haushofer, but did Prantera also translate The Wall? With comments like, “Pamuk tells us, …” I can see that Woods is not reviewing the translation itself but rather the work as if it had been written in English. For my translation review, I looked up La bastarda, a novel written by Trifonia Melibea Obono and translated from Spanish into English by Lawrence Schimel. I read this book during winter break, and given that it is the first book by an Equatorial Guinean woman to be translated into English, I expected to find specific remarks on the translation. On Asymptote, Parker Brookie writes, "Schimel’s English translation brilliantly captures the childlike tone and pace with which Okomo communicates her journey.” Brookie gives a detailed review of the translation including comments on the title, tone, and maintenance of words used by the Fang people. I looked at other sites like Kirkus Reviews and personal blogs, which mentioned that the novel is a groundbreaking translation and a "unique contribution to LBGTQ literature," but I found no further comments.
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