carpenter readings - olivia

 Jumping Into the Pond 

I liked Carpenter's idea of "translating the spirit" and I was really impressed reading his translations of the onomatopoeia because I never thought of "pitter patter" for ドキドキ. I also thought his "jôshiki" idea was interesting. He says that you either like the balancing act of being creative and not changing the intention of the original text or you don't, and I personally think translation can be better when there is creativity, especially after seeing the translated poems last week. As for his comments on translating poems, I agree with how he says cultural understanding, empathy, and being able to balance accuracy and creativity are important skills for a translator to have. I think in order to be able to  "translate the spirit" of a text empathy is just as important as skills such as language proficiency and cultural understanding. For his translation of 命は地球より重い, I was a bit disappointed that the publishers made him change it because I like  “A human life is infinitely precious" a lot more than “The heaviness of life is heavier than the heaviness of all things".

True Collaboration on A True Novel 

One of the most interesting parts of this interview was reading about the level of teamwork between the translator and the author- it is inspiring how they were so dedicated to stay up late to review every word and revisit the same passage several times. The fact that the entire process took 3 years was pretty shocking. It was also interesting to see that Mizumura suggested to add a sentence that would explain the "Japanese prudishness", since it seems like adding extra sentences to explain the culture isn't always encouraged. I was kind of surprised to read that Carpenter chose not to revisit Wuthering Heights even though A True Novel was loosely based on it. I wonder if she would've had more context if she did revisit it, although I agree with her mentality that focusing on Mizumura's unique story should be the most important thing.