The topic of translated poetry is very interesting, especially as I am currently taking a Chinese literature course (in Translation rather than in Chinese) and a frequent topic that gets brought up, especially in relation to the poetry we read, is whether the translation is loosing any information or nuance that was part of the original. I feel as though in a lot of our readings, the topic of translation as 'recreation' is frequently brought up, perhaps this is particularly relevant to poetry. While I understand the logic and to a certain extent agree to it, at certain points it does feel like it oversteps. The first text mentions having a deep enough understanding of the original text to properly be able to translate it, which makes sense but when it comes to liberties taken during the translation it then becomes a much different argument I feel. As with poetry and other writing like it, there may be multiple valid interpretations and who's to say that any one understanding is more correct than another. In that way, overly changing parts during the translation to align with the translator's understanding of the message seems like it can easily go too far-- though I suppose this can be said of any text, not just poetry...
No comments:
Post a Comment