Maurere + The Story of the Stone

    One thing Christopher Maurer mentioned that stuck out to me was that his brother Karl and Carlos Germán Belli "both tried to follow in each other's steps" which I thought was an interesting perspective. I immediately imagined Karl Maurer silently and carefully stepping onto Carlos' footprints so as to leave the same foot trail as him. At first, I couldn't understand why Karl chose language that was so uncommon that it was difficult to read the poems through at once, especially when the original doesn't quite do the same. Christopher Maurer definitely cleared that up for me, though, when he said that his brother's translations demanded more from the reader. There was a moment when he quoted his brother saying "poetry has memorable speech," which is when the nature of these poems and the stylistic choices Karl made in his translations began to make some more sense. Overall, Christopher's brother, Karl Maurer, not only presented new perspectives on translation, that readability is not necessarily a priority in poetry, but poetry in general. I came a bit closer to understanding the impact of Carlos' poems that Christopher Maurer described in the reading from last Monday. 

    The most interesting part of the sections we read of "The Story of the Stone" was in chapter 1 when the Stone, who can speak, explains that his love story provides a freshness to romance that other books do not. Last semester I took an Introduction to East Asian Literature class in which I read many classic Chinese love stories, so I find myself agreeing with what the stone says here. Most of them had a very formulaic beginning, stating the place and date of the setting alongside the protagonist's status and brief family history. I just liked this small detail. As for the translation, just off the surface, despite the occasional unfamiliar term, this story is easy to read and understand compared to other translations of older Chinese texts. 

Maurer & The Story of the Stone - Audree

 Christopher Maurer Lecture:

I found this lecture to be extremely rich, specifically because we got to hear Belli, Maurer and Shapiro read out their versions of the poems. Christopher originally spoke of the importance of reading a poem aloud and when he played those recordings it really rang true. Reading can be such a solitary experience, with your own mind (obviously with much guidance from the writer) setting the pace, hearing your own voice in your own head. Hearing the way the author reads their own work is an indication of how they perceive it. Indeed, hearing Shapiro read out her translation was so indicative of how she perceived them, while Maurer's were indicative of how he understood them. Not that either one is wrong, just vastly different. I liked the use of cognates in Karl's translation. I did find it harder to read but also more interesting, more fun. 

The Story of the Stone: 

I find Hawk's discussion of colors and their various connotations to be very interesting. Indeed, while I know that red is a symbol of wealth, abundance etc., in Chinese culture, I simply do not find this intuitive because it is not my culture. Gold and green feel more right to me because that is what I'm used to. So to say that the book lacked a "redness" in the English translation just shows how important colors are and the associations we make with them. I was also thrown off by the different titles that the work had. As Rose said in her comment, they all give off very different impressions. It was also interesting to see the different translations of Dreams of a Red Chamber. Indeed, the French translation, Le rêve dans le pavillon rouge, does make it seem like someone is dreaming under an outdoor roofed structure, while red chamber evokes more of a bedroom, and the room itself is having dreams, or many people have perhaps dreamed in that chamber. 

Christopher Maurer and Dream of the Red Chamber - Wes

 

Christopher Maurer Lecture & Reading Story of the Stone - from Suis

 I enjoyed Christopher Maurer’s talk on translating (or editing) poetry. Much of his lecture served as a reminder about how to approach translating poetry, that it is better to prioritize meaning over rhyme or rhythm, etc. He said that one “must hear the poet reading their own poetry” before one translates them. I thought that was very interesting. Although it could be useful, I don’t think many people have the luxury of doing that, especially when translating dead poets who have no recordings.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading David Hawkes’ introduction to his translation of The Story of the Stone. It’s a great investigation into the history of the writing and its authorship. I found it interesting that this story is compared to The Remembrance of Things Past because I initially saw the parallels between this work to The Tale of Genji (another work that is compared to Proust’s work.) The Tale of Genji has a similar form where the prose breaks off into poetry, or has a discussion of genre within the work to name a few similarities.

Upon reading the translation, I initially thought that the translator may favor domestication as I read what I’m certain are translated names of locations such as “Great Fable Mountains” and “Greensickness Peak” (47). A couple pages in, I noticed some foreignization with “the chou in a comedy” (50) and then going forward from there, the influx of the character’s names and proper nouns are all foreignized. It made me recall Julia Sanches’ lecture when she talked about how it could be overwhelming for the English speaking reader to see a large amount of foreignization on the first page and it’s better to ease the reader into the foreign world. I wonder if this technique is being used here? However, I still felt a bit overwhelmed with the long list of names that come up in chapter 2. Although I managed, it was a bit difficult to keep up with the characters.

In chapter 3, I noticed a peculiar use of foreignization followed by a domestication of a similar term on the same page. “Dai-yu kotowed” to her superiors while she “exchanged curtseys” with three girls (89). I had to look up what kowtow meant, and according to google, it's a term in traditional China that means “the act of supplication made by an inferior to their superior by kneeling and knocking their head to the floor.” This term is foreignizing the scene, while “curtsey” is a more western cultural term. I found the succession of these terms interesting.

Apr 24: Christopher Maurer Talk, The Story of the Stone Readings - Rose

  Christopher’s talk was a sweet way to end the translation lecture series this semester, and hearing Belli read out his poems completely changed my perception and reading of them. I think it was interesting to see how Shapiro and (Karl) Maurer offered something different in their translations, where Shapiro’s version was immediately clearer in general meaning and could be understood from the first reading, whereas Maurer’s version did not immediately let readers in. I agree with Christopher that translations of poetry should be accompanied by the original text, especially in this “palimpsest” that he proposed and could be followed as such: Horace → Francisco de Medrano → Belli → Karl Maurer → Christopher Maurer → David Rade (and with other helping invisible hands, of course). As Christopher quoted, “Poetry is language thick with happiness, dense with being,” and I feel so grateful to have been able to relish the Baroque illusions, motifs, and heart that Belli poured into his poetry. 

I enjoyed the lofty, dream-like language in the first and third chapters of The Story of the Stone by Cao Xueqin, and in David Hawkes's introduction, I was fascinated by the discussion on varying titles of the book. “A Dream of Golden Girls” gives me a completely different feeling and set of images than “Dream of the Red Chamber” and “A Dream of Red Mansions” do, not to mention “The Story of the Stone.” I am also not sure how Proust’s works came to be a recurring theme this semester, because even here, I wonder why there has be a comparison where The Story of the Stone is a “sort of Chinese Remembrance of Things Past” (22), especially if The Story of the Stone was published over 100 years earlier. In the translations of the chapters themselves, I was surprised by the lack of footnotes, although I did learn quite a bit by looking up terms on my own, for example with the description, “she had a boy cousin who was born with a piece of jade in his mouth and who was exceptionally wild and naughty” (97) and the term, “balustraded loggias” (88). Additionally, in Chapter 1, I thought the “Won-Done Song” (63-4) was quite playful. I wonder what the original rhyme was between “won” and “done,” as well as if there were any other clever phonetic effects. 

Maurer -- Brennan

 Professor Maurer gave a very touching presentation and was also a very clear and understandable speaker.  Many of the ideas he presented intrigued me.

As if we hadn't already put enough nails in the coffin of the Original, I was fascinated by his description of working with poetry that appears in multiple unpublished versions. To my way of thinking they would all be equally original. This got me thinking, though, what is a "final" version? If we are questioning the idea that the original is supreme, we should also question the idea that the final is supreme. Without even mentioning publishing, an author may go through many drafts of a work before it is final. Working with a Dead Author, there is nothing to prevent the reader from saying that an earlier draft is preferable to a later.

But we do have to mention publishing. I was sad that the publishers couldn't see the sales potential of the title "35 Poems". Title or absence of title can be such an important part of a work, as we saw in discussing how to translate The Face of My Daughters. I also have to think of Saturn Devouring His Son, the painting by Goya. Says Wikipedia, "It is important to note that Goya never named the works he produced at Quinta del Sordo; the names were assigned by others after his death." The title absolutely colors the interpretation, and so I have to wonder what Azure Cloister would have been under a different name.

I can't get on board with the idea of insisting on translating words by their cognates, especially when those cognates will have come via Latin rather than directly from Spanish. The different strata of the English language all come with their different social and political histories, and Latin is the most elevated. Not every poem is best served by elevated language.

Maurer's Lecture + Reading Response (04/24) - Marina

I've been thinking about the layers in translation that Christopher Maurer's mentioned in his lecture last Friday. How all translations convey different layers: the authors and works that the author absorbed before writing the source text, the editors that edited that text, the text's translation, and the translator, who at the same time absorbed many other texts themselves. I would also add the layers of culture, of history, of gender, or race, background, nationality, etc. It's impossible, at least, in my opinion to know, and even more difficult, to be aware of all these layers. But I believe it's the translator's job to discover as many layers as possible and take them into account when translating a text. And, so, a big translator task is to investigate. Investigate about everything, read as much as possible on the source text, on its author, on its historical and cultural context...and that is something that David Hawkes presents to the reader in his introduction of Cao Xueqin's The  Story of The Sone. And it's been something that I've had to learn when translating my capstone. I've come to realize that translation is 80% research, 20% translation. I think this is something we don't learn a lot when learning about the theory or practice of translation, and it's something that we should bring out more in conversations with our peers. 

I find David Hawkes decision to "translate everything, even puns" very interesting. I think that it's a very tough decision to make, but I feel like his choice was made having a scholarly audience in mind rather than a more literary niche. I believe his goal was to make the reader understand the content rather than appreciate the form. I wish I could prove this hypothesis by accessing the source text. I wonder if my classmates agree with this. 

Carlos Rojas + Reading Response ーAudree

 I found Rojas' talk to be interesting, and I was especially interested in the first novel he brought up, A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo. The concept seemed really interesting and I would like to read it eventually. I found it surprising that the translated text in Chinese did not pay any attention to the linguistic evolution of the main character, as Rojas really emphasized how that was so evident in the English and served as a real testimonial of the character's evolution. 

In the reflections on the translations, I enjoyed hearing the insight of what it is like to translate poetry from Maurer himself. When he notes that sometimes this "magic" is lost and doesn't return, that seemed like a really honest reflection. 

I had never read Belli's poems before, but I liked them a lot. I found the repetition of words to be intriguing and word orders puzzling but in a way that is almost like deciphering an enigma. The little that I could understand of the Spanish originals seemed quite close to the English translations, which echoes the stance that Maurer takes on translation needing to be as literal as possible.

Rojas + the Maurer brothers - from Lianbi

 Carlos Rojas:

I really didn’t like the presentation. It was not very tightly connected to translation, filled with many random big topics that didn’t suit an audience where the majority didn’t have a background in Chinese. Even though I have Chinese, I still found the connection among his points very loose. How is the point about bad handwriting connected to the point about classical vs. contemporary Chinese? Plus, that handwriting is seriously not that bad. I could figure out what character it was very easily. I’m not sure what point he was trying to make: that it’s okay to just guess? He didn’t take time reading the passages carefully or really explain his points thoroughly. I also felt like he didn’t listen to his audience carefully enough and didn’t really respond to their questions. It was also irresponsible of him to have us read the Ng material and not talk about it at all. In general it felt like simply recycling a talk he did elsewhere at our seminar. It was not helpful and very hard to follow.

Notes about Christopher editing Karl Maurer’s translation:

• I’m so moved by the story of this book… What a beautiful thing for Christopher to gather the manuscripts and have them published. I feel like he’s giving a new meaning to “editor of translation.” So much love is felt between the lines…

• I love the bilingual format! I want to ask him about what kind of arrangements make this possible. It also seems like a thing Swan Isle Press does pretty often. 

• My impression is that Karl takes a more dynamic approach than Shapiro in the translations. I like Karl’s better. What I like most about Karl’s approach is how he uses poetic license to diverge from English grammar rules and word order to replicate the expressive power of the original. The unusual wordings are entirely understandable and surprise readers in a good way. At the same time, sometimes Karl diverges from the original wording by interpreting the actual meaning of connectives (especially y or and, I feel like Karl really dive deep into the question of the function of y in the original) or relationship between concepts. Shapiro seems to be principally interested in making the original read smooth and contemporary.

• Karl’s version read more exciting and surprising, as well as musical.

• “Memory of My Brother” particularly moved me. I liked “made out of lime and sand and flesh and soul” although it is not what the original says. The “comma comma comma and” structure sometimes slows the rhythm down too much, and four items in a list can be awkward.

• I like that Karl chose “except that here you are reproduced in me” rather than “but that here you are reproduced in me” because the “except” really highlights the stillness of permanence of departure and separation between the two brothers. (And oh my this line is so moving thinking about the context of Karl and Christopher.)

So sorry I ran out of time typing today! Will share more in class.

Carlos Germán Belli and Karl Maurer — Gisele

     Unfortunately, I was unable to attend Carlos Rojas' talk this past Friday so I will be focusing on this week's reading. 

    I liked reading Carlos Germán Belli's poetry side by side with Karl's translations, it left no questions unanswered and gave the impression that Karl was proud of his translations (rightfully so). He clearly seems to have a relationship with his translations in a similar way that Carlos has a relationship with his poetry in which they both have very personal, introspective, and almost spiritual approaches to their work. The more we learn about interactions between writers and translators, the more I am convinced that some writers and translators simply fit into one another. When it comes to Karl, his description of the "hunger" certain poems incite in him reflects that sentiment. I actually liked reading about the "magic" or "luck" involved in his work because it reintroduced the idea that in translations the words tend to find themselves, and translators are merely the means through which they come alive. One poem that seemed to illustrate this "magic" was Karl's translation of "The Cornucopia" (page xix). It was incredibly satisfying to read the English version, which practically mirrors the Spanish both visually and lyrically, alongside the Spanish (and I just really liked the poem itself). The two complement each other on the page. I suppose it was even more satisfying to have translated it. Finally, reading the emails between Karl and his brother, Christopher, was really heartwarming. It was clear that Karl put a lot of careful thought into his work. 

Carlos Rojas Lecture + Readings - Suis

 I felt that Carlos Rojas was a bit unorganized with the things he talked about. He spent a lot of time speaking about the novel by Xiaolu-Guo, A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers (2007), then of the language register changes in Lu Xun, Diary of a Madman (1918). He criticized the three translations of this text to English, that the translators didn’t adequately translate the change from high register, formal Chinese to colloquial, spoken Chinese. He finally touched briefly on his own translation of Lenin's Kisses by Yan Lianke. He posed one issue he encountered (made up words), and his solution was to use neologisms, which is a pretty obvious and straightforward solution to that problem. I wish he spoke more about his translations (such as the ones we read), his career in translation, and more of his personal philosophy on these things. I must admit, he is not my favorite speaker, however, his discussion on seal script was interesting.

The Azure Cloister was an interesting read. The inverted word order, “Gongoresque syntax,” and the interesting enjambments gave the poems a foreignized feeling. Despite these complexities in the original, I found that the translation reads very well. I like the way “pues de la tierra al cielo voy y vengo” is translated into “as I go skywards, earthwards, to and fro.” I feel the words “skywards” and “earthwards” give a naturalness to the poem that “from the earth” and “to the sky” wouldn’t have given. However, I wonder why he switched the word order there. As a general rule, I think one should keep the word order of the original in the translation. Also, “to and fro” is an interesting domestication of “come and go.”

Carlos Rojas' Lecture + Reading Response (04/17) - Marina

I liked Carlos Rojas' lecture, especially when he talked about linguistic tensions in "Diary of a Madman" by Lu Xun and its different translations. We've seen this in class with other translators, and in other lectures this semester. Most translators agree with Rojas: we can't cut or omit parts of the text that might be difficult to translate due to their linguistic tensions, we might risk loosing a lot by doing that. What Rojas did is that he came up with neologisms, words that the reader could recognize as English but, at the same time, they could also recognize as foreign, or difficult to grasp. He also recommended the use of footnotes that would serve to explain phrases and offer backstory and history of the text to complement the text. I agree with these recommendations and I might use them for my capstone. 

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Carlos Germán Bellini's poems translated by Karl Maurer and edited by his brother Christopher Maurer. I can't imagine attempting to translate Bellini because he uses such a complicated word order, syntax and diction, even for Spanish! But, Karl Maurer does an amazing job of expressing to the reader the meaning and the feel of the poem, the experience that the reader for the first time experiences, but he, at times, takes a lot of liberty when translating. I understand this, as it's very complicated to translate poetry, and the translator needs to always make up for something that will be sacrificed or lost in translation. Overall, I think he did a fantastic job and I'm looking forwards to discussing his work in class. 

Apr 19: Carlos Rojas Talk; Christopher Maurer, Karl Maurer, Carlos Germán Belli Readings - Rose

            I liked Carlos Rojas' talk and was particularly interested in his comments on Lenin´s Kisses. I am fascinated by the concept of a book whose plot takes place in the footnotes. I think that the solution of creating neologisms in English was super creative. I also personally would have been interested in reading a book titled Silence and Gasping, jaja. Unfortunately, Carlos Rojas did not discuss his own translations. I was looking forward to hearing his remarks on translating The Disappearance of M. With his 60+ slides, he seemed to mention so much besides it. Nonetheless, I respect his work and acknowledge the importance that comes with being consistent in one’s translation strategy. 

Carlos Germán Belli´s poetry and Karl Maurer´s English translations were such a treat! Christopher is also a prominent translator and scholar in his own right, of course. Although he had introduced Belli’s poetry to me in September, I did not notice the true depth it reached (until now). Reading about Belli’s relationship with his brother Alfonso through the poetry was deeply moving, and I can’t help but think about the relationship that Karl and Christopher share. I could not help but get emotional reading their email exchanges. I can just imagine how equally exciting and frustrating the revision process must have been. As Karl mentions in his introduction, Belli seems to use each word as a gate to its own web of images, and he seamlessly weaves a Baroque, Golden-Age-Spanish-poetry style with everyday language. He goes from discussing alienation and nihilism to nostalgia and familial love, and it is these contradictions that I think Karl captures so well in his translations. It is beyond impressive to think that Karl went about translating these poems over the course of thirty years, capturing Belli’s “subtle, fine humor that reflects happiness, even when he is saying the most terrible things!” I especially enjoyed “Nudo.” It made me tear up. Below I have included some immediate observations I made from the five poems Christopher provided (I didn’t realize how long this post ended up being–apologies for that and any mistakes I have): 

Frunce el feto su frente 

• Flexibility in Spanish syntax that becomes difficult to replicate in English: Frunce el feto / y sus cejas enarca  → “The foetus screws his face, / brows arches,” (Maurer maintains the verb, noun / noun, verb order)

• Form: I love, love, love the meter and rhyme that Karl includes in his translation. Belli commonly writes in a rhythm of stressed-unstressed syllables, which Karl most often replicates in loose iambs. The end rhymes like “time” and “slime,” “cloister” and “roister,”  and “crag” and “drag” are also lovely. 

• Gender: There is no one gender specified to the fetus in the Spanish; both Maurer and Shapiro make it a “he” (but perhaps this could be a genderless, literary “he”)

• Elevated register: there are many literary phrases that would not be used in everyday Spanish, including do (“where”) in do se truecan sin tasa → “which…he comes to rent in time” (Maurer)

Por el monte abajo

• Form: endecasílabo (11 syllables per line) with sinalefa (vowel combining between words) and eight syllables in the fifth line → about 10 syllables with 6-8 in the fifth in Maurer’s English translation

• More antiquated, literary words: centuplicando → “centuplicating,” como si dellos fuere (de ellos + future subjunctive)→ “as if they had no fate,” a tutiplén → “overflowing,” raudo → “swift,” peña → “crag” 

• Although there is also a mixing of old and new in the translation: feudo → “fiefdom,” cetro → “sceptre,” poquillo (poco + diminutive, so playful!) → “a little” 

La cara de mis hijas

• I also teared-up reading this poem

• Form: endecasílabo (11 syllables per line) again → about 8-9 syllables in Karl’s English translation

• Interesting translation differences between Shapiro and Maurer: 

• Cielo → “heaven” (Shapiro) or “sky” (Maurer) ? 

• Mis ambas hijas → “my two young daughters” (Shapiro) or “in either daughter” (Maurer)

• Todo aqeullo que ajeno yo creía → “to an everything an older self once new” (Shapiro) or “what I had thought was alien” (Maurer)

• Beautiful repetition, change in line order: 

• Conmigo y con el mundo → “with myself and men” (Maurer) or “with myself and with the world” (Shapiro)

• A diario a tutiplén engueciéndome → “I see it blinding and abounding”

Recuerdo de hermano 

• Translation of title: “Memory of My Brother” (Maurer) vs “Memory of a Brother” (Shapiro)

• I personally love the addition of “my.” This is such an intimate piece. 

• Mix of literalness with more poetic language (which I think shows how impressively Karl is balancing all the images at once, like Belli. Karl is creating equally-beautiful poetry in English): 

• Bramar (to roar, bellow) → “resounding” (both emphatic and sonorous!)

• Palpar → “palpate” (love this jaja)

• Inversion, changing infinitive to conjugated verb form: al salir cada cual afuera rápido → “since everyone has gone quickly outside”

• More repetition with a melodious quality:

•  y la esfera fatal / y la esfera feliz → “and the fate-heavy sphere / and the felicitous”

• tu cuadrado, tu círculo, tu mundo → “your pure square, pure circle, purest world”

• Word play with estuviera (ambiguous "to be" – location, feelings; temporary states): como si en vez de mí estuvieras tú → “as if instead of me it were you here” 

Cavilación del caminante

• Another interesting difference in title: “The Walker’s Perplexity” (Maurer) vs “Walking Meditation” (Shapiro) 

• Cavilar = to ponder, think deeply, reflect

• Making sense of the Spanish in translation: Diariamente camino siempre (two adverbs) → “I always take a daily walk” 

• Antiquating in English: 

• Y por allí feliz discurro → “and thither I stroll happily”

• Alguien → "late-comer"

• Repetition of ajeno! : e inerme ante el andar ajeno → “that cannot fight the alien footstep”

Carlos Rojas and Christopher Maurer - Wes

 

from Brennan

I unfortunately found Carlos Rojas very hard to listen to. I was preoccupied with the way he seemed to be rushing through his presentation, which jumped between all eras of Chinese literature. He did not discuss The Disappearance of M, so we had no idea what motivated his "vertebrae" and "whereupon". That being said, he made interesting points about how to translate literature which is itself about translation. He said that A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers was not translated into broken Chinese that would have mimicked the main character's broken English. This would seem to eliminate one of the major elements of the character's voice. 

I thought Peter Constantine made very good points about how to do translation with a time gap; translating with 1800s English sounds elegant and appropriate, but Chaucer's English would be contrived, and finding an "English" to match up to Ancient Greek would be impossible.

I also like Constantine's practice of relying on his younger informants to understand both the currency of the source language and the target language. He readily admits that he is not natively fluent in the most up-to-date slang. This is interesting when translating from German because of the sheer number of English words that have been borrowed into the language. 

April 10th Post - Audree

Peter Constantine Talk

I really enjoyed Peter Constantine's presentation. It made sense that his approach for The Bird is a Raven was domestication because it's true that there aren't many indicators apart from the cities of Berlin and Munich and certain street names, that the book is German. The background on the author, Benjamin Lerbert, was also insightful. The fact that he was 19 when he wrote the book but also that he was never a "typical" kid in the way he spoke makes a lot of sense. While the characters in the story where clearly young, there was no distinct way that each of them spoke and no slang or colloquialisms that particularly made them seem young. However, I do think that Constantine did a good job with the dialogue because while the two characters don't employ slang or anything, there is still a youthfulness about the way they speak and interact with one another. Having this clarification about the original work was helpful.

The Disappearance of M + Carlos Rojas Introduction

I really liked this story, and found that Rojas' introduction was very fitting and provided good context for the reading.The debate about a book's "nationality" is an interesting one, and the story broaches the topic in an amusing and interesting way. The idea that a certain nation can claim a work is strange when you think about it, especially when what makes up a nation is rarely straightforward. I found that the story sounded very natural in English, but it also still felt like I was reading a translation. This is partly due to the content of the story itself, but also because of Rojas' foreignizing choices (keeping "li" as a unit of measurement for example). 

Peter Constantine Lecture and Carlos Rojas Readings Response (04/10)- Marina

 I was thoroughly impressed by Peter Constantine. I can't believe he knows and feels so comfortable in so many languages! I had fun in his lecture and learned a great deal about dialect. His knowledge really helped me in solving some things for my capstone project. Would love to hear another one of his talks!

Carlos Roja's take on categorizing literature in primarily national terms fascinated me. These last past few years, I've been wondering the same thing, what makes a book part of a community? Why do we feel the need to categorize books in national terms? What happens to those books that are multicultural? Why do we have such a hard time accepting that there are books that won't fit our categories? In the end, I think it's because if we don't categorize literature, we won't have any discourses that help keep and reinforce nationalistic values and identities. So nations won't be able to gatekeep. What will happen then? Will we finally accept that we are all citizens of the world? That we're all equal? I wonder what will happen next, such an exciting thought. 

Regarding Rojas' translations, I like how he glossed over some terms, striking a balance between foreignization and domestication. We've seen other translators do the same, such as Julia Sanches. I think in most cases (but it also depends on the case), and if it's possible, that's the way to go because the translator reminds the reader that the text is not the source text; it's something foreign, but at the same time they provide the reader with something accessible, a word or concept which the reader can identify with. 

Peter Constantine and Carlos Rojas - Wesley

 

Peter Constantine Lecture and Carlos Rojas Readings - from Suis

 Peter Constantine’s discussion on dialect was very helpful and served as a great summary for the important factors to keep in mind when translating relevant texts. I was particularly entertained by the comparisons between his translations of certain phrases and the way his editor rendered it. It’s surprising to see how slight changes in word choice can make such a difference in the tone of the dialogue. I’m currently translating a text with a considerable amount of dialogue so his lecture was very helpful in having me think about the importance of dialogue and time (the story was written in 2007 but set in the late 80s) and how those two things were related, and whether I should opt for an 80s sense in my translation or not.

Carlos Rojas’s introduction to The Disappearance of M was so fascinating to read and it made me feel very invested in the works he discussed. I am definitely reading his collection of short stories when I have the time. I aspire to write an introduction as captivating as his. I am particularly concerned with this idea of the “untranslatable” that Rojas discusses several times, as well as such works that “resist translation” (9). I have encountered these instances many times when translating from Japanese to English. I was also reminded of Gisele’s presentation and the poet Gozo Yoshimatsu who incorporates so much in his poetry that is dependent on the original form such as sound and visuals. Rojas touches on this with his translation of two Chinese characters that are distinctly different in the source language but have the same phonetic reading (9). I’m not so sure about his renditions–Yu and Yur–and I am interested to know what others think. I have also encountered the same issue when translating from Japanese where two kanji characters might read the same phonetically but have different kanji characters and therefore different meanings inherent in the language. I am reminded that translation is sometimes a series of choices and solutions.

In the translation of The Disappearance of M, the second paragraph gave away a “translated feel” to the text with a sentence that reads to me as a bit clunky: “Beads of perspiration covered the entire exposed surface of his body, and his shirt was completely soaked with sweat” (1). For some reason, I have a feeling that “perspiration” was used in an attempt to find another way to say “sweat.” (Maybe it’s just me.) I was also a bit confused by the description of the bridge, I wish someone could illustrate it.

Carlos Rojas (pre) and Peter Constantine (post) - from Lianbi

 Carlos Rojas is one of the most important translator-scholars of modern and contemporary Chinese literature in the US today. I’ve noticed that sometimes his translation is motivated by research interests. His translation of Ng’s works, for example, is critically situated in the larger literary movement to pay attention to minority and minoritized writers of Chinese, the Sinophone studies. 

Given the stakes of this translation, nomenclature is important. “Malaysian Chinese Writers” and “Malaysian Chinese Literature” in Carlos’s translation maps exactly to the original 马华作家，马华文学 (this terminology is unique in the Chinese speaking world too; it’s a special term created by Malaysians to refer to the group of Malaysians who are ethnically Chinese). Yet this terminology contradicts with the conventional ordering of race/ethnicity and nationality in the American context. “Chinese Malaysian” would be the American way. Singaporean scholar Chan Cheow Thia created his own term “Mahua Literature” in his book Malaysian Crossings. (And Carlos uses the term too in his article.) I wonder what Carlos’s thought process is behind his decision to choose “Malaysian Chinese”. (I support his decision.)

Given that I am worried I would be too focused on nitty gritty, mostly negative details, I’ll divide my comments into positive and negative ones.

Positive comments:

• Carlos captures the satirical tone of the writing quite well. “With this, he called an end to another tedious Malaysian literary history debate.” “Li took him for a stroll around a cemetery near Yangming Mountain, inviting him to savor some of the freshest air in Taiwan.” “whereupon I (uh, it’s not me)... he told Li…” (Such smart play of perspectives, and it makes the story sound like a script of a performance—some kind of storytelling?)

• “Like Li Yongping, Zhang was grinning, though for very different reasons.” This was a smart translation of the original which contains an idiom 异曲同工 (literally, “different melodies, yet equally beautiful/intricate”) that describes the two smiles.

• Great research into all the Malaysian authors mentioned in the story. Carlos put important effort into introducing all of them and their brief life stories into the English-speaking world. Also the diversity of style among the “Malaysian Chinese” authors.

• As Carlos mentioned in his notes, he strikes a balance between fidelity and intelligibility in the context of the original’s heteroglossia. I really appreciated how he kept words like “cempedak” in the original. 

• The translation reads smooth and very close to the original. The metafictional elements come through very well. (Although I thought the note about Huang - the surname of the author and the surname of the reporter in Mandarin is the same character as Ng, the author's name in Hokkiean should have been in the translation itself, not in the translator’s note?)

Negative comments:

• “They are so deeply committed to writing in Chinese that they wouldn’t even dream of writing in English.” (8) I thought the “dream of” here was odd. It makes it sound like they want to write in English. They simply don’t want to write in English at all.

• “Li smiled warmly” (9) is an error in translation. The original phrase is 暧昧的微笑, “a mysterious/secret smile” or “a smile with unclear intentions/meaning.”

• “Maybe the novel was written by some Chinese writer living abroad who wanted to pull an elaborate stunt” (9) wrong translation. “some Chinese writer living abroad” should have been “some foreign sinologist.” I think they’re quite different.

• “Ah Fan, Ah Fan” (15) I’m pretty sure it’s Ah Shen, Ah Shen… I was cautious that maybe there’s a dialectical difference among the varieties of Chinese. I looked it up in simplified and traditional Chinese, I don’t see a second pronunciation but “shen.” This seems like a very elementary mistake to me. I wonder if it could be the case that Carlos is not good at reading traditional Chinese, supposing he learned simplified Chinese first. 

• “he preferred to write his own works in a kind of ‘untranslatable Chinese’, and didn’t deign to try to ingratiate himself with those immature American critics…” (9-10) This is a very interesting sentence playing with the multiple meanings of “untranslatability.” I wonder why Carlos added “a kind of” to this line. I think that makes the meaning confusing. It’s not there in the original. I think Li’s just referring to the notion that Chinese is untranslatable (and he writes exclusively in Chinese), not a kind of Chinese. I would just say “he preferred to write his own works in ‘untranslatable Chinese’...”

• “I could easily recognize that kind of lust, which was like dryness seeking moisture.” (17) This doesn’t make sense in English and does not match the original. How is the concept/state of “dry” seeking moisture? Original roughly says “dry greed, wet lust.”

• “Would chain smoke one cigarette after another”  What’s the word “chain” doing there?

• “The first time, I saw him emerge out of the rubber tree forest I was truly astonished.” The comma makes the sentence ungrammatical. 

• “According to local custom, I have to tell you a story.” (17) “local custom” makes no sense here. The story here is an overview of the man. This is not a tradition of their place. Just courtesy as an interviewee… Even if it’s a custom it’s not a local one, the girl is commenting on the conventions of journalism.

• “If I may, what is your name?” (18) Mistake. The original doesn’t specify whose name the journalist is asking for. It shouldn’t be the girl’s name as is rendered in the translation, because he already knew that her name is Ah Qing.  

Neutral comments/questions:

• The original for “crazed” (15) 犭肖 is an expression from the countryside dialect that the family spoke. The dialect is not captured. And what do we think about the choice of using “crazed” instead of “crazy” or “mad” or “insane”?

• 白粉仔 (white-powder-dude) is translated for its meaning as “cocaine addict.” Is there maybe a more colloquial choice that Carlos could have gone with?

• I wonder why he only translates one name for meaning, Bird’s Egg. 

Quick Note on Peter Constantine:

What a polyglot! Unimaginable. His presentation was very interesting. Although it was funny how most of the examples were not his own translation… Very engaging and thought provoking talk! I can’t imagine how he does the variety of work he does.