After reading this article, I am left with many questions about the points the author mentioned but did not fully explain. These might be considered common knowledge, but I find them quite confusing.
My first question is why Seidensticker said it’s easy to hide the contents of a diary but impossible to hide the act of writing one. What makes this habit so difficult to conceal? Isn’t keeping a diary something you typically do in the privacy of your own room? I can’t understand how such a personal activity could be so hard to hide.
Additionally, Seidensticker emphasized that a translation should not surpass the original work. If it does, the translator has overstepped and made a mistake. I strongly agree with his idea that it is problematic for a translator to improve upon the original work—that is simply not the role of a translator. However, Seidensticker also mentioned that he likes the idea that a translated version of a book can seem better when doing a quick read. Don’t these two points contradict each other? It seems problematic to hold both views at once for me.
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