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.