Comments on Readings - Yang

1. Wendy Lesser, “The Mysteries of Translation”

I agree with the article that it's completely different to read a book in its original language that you're somewhat familiar with (e.g. Japanese) and to read that same book translated into your native language. It just makes it a lot easier and enjoyable to read, even if there are elements lost in the translation. It seems the author had a weird obsession with Birnbaum. I thought the translation by Rubin was perfectly fine, if not even clearer. The author also thinks that it is the translator's job to disappear, going as far as saying that the ideal translator's job is to become an invisible man, which I do not agree with. I think it is good for translators to stay true to the original work, but they also have their own styles of translating and that's what makes reading these translations fun instead of just reading a 100% literal translation.

2. Interview with Jay Rubin and Philip Gabriel, “Found in Translation”

I found the last sentence of the article to be significant: "We go through the trouble of translating works because we want to learn about the culture, but it turns out that culture is the hardest thing to translate." This encapsulates why it is so difficult to translate certain Japanese expressions into English because there is a difference in culture and thereby a difference in the words we use (e.g. お疲れ様、いただきます). It's extremely hard to translate these expressions into other languages, as the equivalent simply doesn't exist. I'm curious why Murakami does not translate his own works if he is good at English and is a translator, as I feel he can give a more accurate translation. Perhaps it's just due to time constraints?

3. Interview with Philip Gabriel, “How Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 Got Translated into English.”

First of all, it is insane to have a single story spread out over three books. I would definitely not be able to commit to reading the whole thing, let alone translating it, so major props to the three translators. I like how they talked about different translators having their own, unique styles and how they worked together to minimize that difference to stay mostly uniform throughout the three books. As with the "Found in Translation" article, Gabriel talks about how translating Japanese verbs feels like "giving away the punchline" as they are placed at the end of sentences originally. I wonder if there are ways to effectively prevent this from happening and to keep the action unclear until the end.

4. Michael Emmerich, “Fans around the world reading Haruki Murakami in parallel worlds”

I wonder why the students from the United States considered Murakami as "realistic" and "difficult" while Japanese readers originally regarded him as "light" and "shallow." Perhaps this is due to the differences in the writing styles of the original novels and the translated versions or just due to cultural differences. It's interesting how they chose a different Chinese translator (Shi) for "1Q84" despite the other translator (Lin) having experience translating Murakami's works for over twenty years. I feel like Chinese readers might actually prefer Lin for his Chinese classics-style writing to Shi's Murakami-like tone, in terms of readability and familiarity. It's cool how Shi is recognized for his work as a translator now and that there are more young people now who look up to the notable figures in this profession.