Comments on Readings - Ellerie

For "The Mysteries of Translation", I found it interesting how the author mentions that they prefer one translator to another. I feel like when I read a translated story, I am thinking about the work as being written by the original author as opposed to the translator. Because of that, I usually don't pay attention to the translator's unique style. Reading the two passages provided, I enjoyed that of Birnbaum better. He had a style that seemed to flow more naturally and almost made me forget that I was reading a translated passage. Because of how different Japanese is to English, I find this difficult to do.

For "Found in Translation", it was interesting that, because of Murakami's interest in American media, his work is easier to translate into English text. Murakami almost seems to be writing from a different cultural standpoint, trying to include American concepts he finds interesting into his Japanese work. It is interesting that Jay Rubin seems to point this out more than J. Philip Gabriel.

For "How Haruki Murakami's '1Q84' Was Translated Into English", the idea of a translated work being better than the original was interesting to me. It would be difficult to say which is better, both from individual and cultural standpoint. I think a translated work surpassing the original work would mean that it didn't faithfully carry out what it is meant to do, which is to get across the emotional and cultural undertones of the story.

For the interview with Michael Emmerich, I found it interesting that the two different groups of students were able to have such differing opinions on Haruki Murakami's works. I wonder if that is because the translated work gives off a different feeling to the original in a way that portrays the writing as more difficult, or if the subject matter and writing style of the story is so different and more 'difficult' than the average works in the US as compared to Japanese works. It's interesting how much of the perception of foreign authors is based on cultural differences or the tone of the translator.