Sunday, January 30, 2011
Entering the Pale of Literary Translation...
After reading Susie Jie Young Kim's article about literary translation, please respond to the following question: "What are the primary challenges of translation that Kim explores and how do these relate to your understanding of Chronicle of a Death Foretold?" Please post your response as a comment on this thread.
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Translating literary pieces is a whole big challenge in itself. Literature in its original form is at the epitome of beauty and meaning in terms of language. Different languages differ in their terminology and meaning and some do not have words that are present in another. As Young Kim says, “Translation is a literary practice that has been abused and mistreated in many ways.”
ReplyDeleteKim explores the challenges of translating literary works as being more than “a mechanical, formulaic, or clinical process” suggesting the difficulty in doing so.
One problem when translators get to work is their approach at translating the literary piece. Literature always has several layers of meaning to it hence giving it the quality of being able to be justified in many ways. Kim mentions that the “historical relationship of the two literary traditions also influences the translator’s approach o or attitude toward the process.” This thus changes or decreases the meaning that the original piece had. The evidence to support this is through her own experiences. She is “aware of the uneven power of relationship”between Korean and English due to different cultural backgrounds and other aspects such as gender.
Furthermore, translating a literary piece of work is not a matter of only translating word-to-word. It takes time in order for the piece not to lose its meaning. Kim herself had many versions till her latest translation of the poem “1959”. She had to look for words that most closely match the words that were originally written in Korean and also had to rearrange the sentence so it does not lose its “rhythm”.
Although “Chronicle of a Death Foretold” is known to be an excellent translation of Marquez’s book from Spanish, critics and those who have read both Spanish and English versions have mentioned that they are still not the same in terms of meaning. Marquez’s glamorous writing skills only show their true colours when read in Spanish. Although a hint of this beauty is seen in the English version, the story is still quite dull due to the difference in language as well as the cultural backgrounds. This only proves Kim’s exploration of the challenges of translating works to be true. It does take time and quite a bit of thought.
There are many primary challenges of translation explored by Kim. The major challenge of translation is to minimize the filtering and contamination of the original work. The translated piece is always transformed in its physical appearance, but also in its content. Since the two languages are not the same, and usually very different, the same exact words, meaning, tone, and mood are very hard to express and are usually slightly different between the two works. Many sayings that are present in the original work do not make sense in the translated language. This forces the translator to change the work and often make it have a slightly different meaning. Kim explains that she sometimes becomes myopic when translating and this makes the translated text boring and it loses its special feel that the original author intended it to have.
ReplyDeleteAnother major challenge is the influence of cultural context and how one translates one language into another that does not contain the same cultural background. A further problem with translation is the variation in the interpretations of the meanings of literary texts. Literary texts can have many interpretations and the translator will be biased to his/her interpretation of the text. A challenge that was experienced by many translators in the past was that some did not even know which language the text they were translating had been originally written in. Some translators even translated works that were translations themselves.
Some other challenges are the effect of the historical relationships of the two literary traditions to the approach or attitude of the translator toward the translating process and the effect of the translator’s position. The identity and background of the translator can greatly affect the way he/she translates pieces of works. Kim also elucidates how translation is an ongoing process and how there are many pauses and breaks in the process due to various reasons.
Kim further expresses that she encounters many challenges with form versus content. She explains how it is difficult to ensure that not too much information is added to make the translation clearer to the reader. She also reveals how it is challenging for translators to work with the different rhythms and grammatical structures of different languages.
These challenges help me understand the difficulty of translation and how complicated it must have been to translate the Chronicle of a Death Foretold. It also explains the complicated nature of the style of Chronicle of a Death Foretold. It is clear that the understanding of the culture of the text would be better in the original language. There are many things that Gabriel García Márquez might have expressed and meant in his original text that the translated text was unable to fully express in the same way. There are probably many parts of the book that would make more sense in the original language.
Susie Jie Young Kim points out several complications that come up when translating a work into another language. In the context of Chronicles of a Death foretold by Marquez all these aspects seem to apply and they obviously change the way with which we read his words in English.
ReplyDeleteThe first interesting point I want to make, is that what kim describes as ‘translation for me is an ongoing process’. It makes me wonder whether there are things the translator would change now compared to when he first translated chronicles of a death foretold. Many aspects influence an individuals choice for words, context and content. For example the time in which the work influences translation. If the work was translated a long time ago, the relationships between the countries of the origin and that in which language we translate might have changed. How do we know what political prejudices might be stuck in a the English version of the chronicles. But even more so, we should consider the cultural differences. As kim points out, she is aware of being a translator from a Korean background, with Korean identity and strong feelings towards her own culture. As carefully as the translator might have treated marquez’s work, it is still very possible that his background of family traditions, social boundaries and relationships influenced his choices for words and consequently also partly the meaning or content of the story.
Another aspect to consider should be the amount of revision that was given to the work. How many people who new it in both languages criticized the book before it was printed? What were those people’s backgrounds? There are many steps that have to be taken to be able to say that a wide range of people consider the story the same book.
Obviously, a translator is always faced with the problem that not in every language do we have the exact same words and expressions, just as kim points out at the very beginning of her article. A translator needs flexibility and we sort of rely on him to make the right choices. I guess that is why it is always useful to keep in mind that the translation might just differ a bit from the original but at the same time treat it, in itself, as a piece of art.
For me, one of the most important aspects would be for the translator to capture the specific writing style of a certain author such as marquez. And the two books I have read by marquez to have a very special and unusual style and also are the same concerning the structure and the word choice. I can imagine it becomes harder to translate, the more layers a written work has and it is therefore not easy to capture something as complex as marquez’s work!
Translation in literature is an art of changing the language of a literary work to another language without changing the meaning and the ideas of the author. It requires a lot of talent and hard work. The challenges faced by the translators are in-numerous.
ReplyDeleteThere are various challenges explored by Susie Jie Young Kim. One of the major challenges the translators face is their way to contemplate the piece of literature. Most of the literary works have several layers of meaning attached to them. Many times the translators do not even know which language was the text originally written in. Little knowledge and an inadequate approach towards the understanding of the text is one major challenges the translators face.
Another challenge faced by translators is the different historical and cultural backgrounds of the two languages, which influences the attitude of the translator towards the process.
Another fact that influences the translating process is the role of the translator in the society and his personal approach towards life. The original text is usually transformed into a new version, strongly in the appearance and slightly in the basic content.
Kim stated that one major challenge faced by the translators is to translate the literary work from one language to the other without changing the basic thoughts of the author. It is a very difficult task to prevent adding excess information while translating.
Often, the translators encounter the problem of translating phrases, idioms or proverbs. Different languages have different phrases to describe something. This makes it very difficult to translate the exact idea of the author. Different languages have different ways to express the same thing. The meaning, tone, context and attitude changes as we compare two languages.
Translation is a very complex and demanding task. 'Chronicles of a death foretold' is a strong piece of literature. It has also been translated in a very precise manner. It is one of the best translated work of Gabriel García Márquez. But it has been criticized by the critiques and others who have read the book in both Spanish and English. They claim that some of the important elements of the book have been missing in it's translated version. The story makes much more apprehensible and coherent in it's original language than in English. Thus, this proves that Kim's explorations about the difficulties in translation are true.
Ayushi
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ReplyDeleteIn the article “Entering the Pale of Literary Translation” by Susie Jie Young Kim, we are able to understand some elements that affect the translation of literature, enabling us to understand how “Chronicle of a Death Foretold” by has translation pitfalls.
ReplyDeleteSusie Jie Young Kim explained that in the process of translating literature, it is impossible to translate text exactly how the original writer wrote it to be. Every language is different, having its own unique characteristics. When translated into another language, the text may lose these unique characteristics. For this reason, language is rather inflexible and inadaptable. Language is strongly influenced by culture, which is not shared among other languages. Therefore, the translation may be strongly affected by the perspective of the translator.
In some cases, the translator may be biased towards the original text in which he is translating. For example, the past relationships between the two cultures of the literature may influence how the translator interprets, hence translates, the text. The text may be censored or distorted by the translator; therefore the text is no longer in its former shape.
Most importantly, the text may be distorted due to language and grammar factors itself. For example, expressions used in the original text may not necessarily mean or imply the same thing in the translated text. We all know the each language has its own expressions that are used many times in a piece of literature. However, this expressions translated into the new language may be meaningless, and without the expressions, the text may lose significance or the original ‘glory’. This can be seen throughout “Chronicle of a Death Foretold” in that there seems to be many gaps in the book where a clever expression could be fitted in. According the people who have read the book in its original language, the expressions add more color to the story. The English translation of the book seems dull and more factual, rather than a chronicle or story. Punctuation also matters greatly in the process of translation. In some languages, punctuation may change the effect of the text, as Kim demonstrated through 1959. In ‘Chronicle of a Death Foretold”, there are obvious places where the sentence may sound rather awkward due to lack of punctuation. Also, phrasing is definitely unique to specific languages. Kim provides us with the example of how an original phrasing translated as it is may sound like, “during World War II to the South Seas [who was] shipped off the uncle/unexpectedly a latter received.” In “Chronicle of a Death Foretold”, there are many similar awkward phrases.
Therefore, translations of literature cannot maintain the original beauty of the text. However, there can be better interpretations of the text that depend on the translator. A translator will always want to perfect his/her translation, which, in the process, may alter the content of the original text. All these pitfalls can be see clearly through “Chronicle of a Death Foretold”.
In Susie Jie Young Kim’s article, “Entering the Pale of Literary Translation”, she explores many fascinating challenges that literary translation presents. Interestingly, she points out that it is the fundamental “adaptability and flexibility” of language that makes it impossible to objectively translate a text and have it retain its exact meaning. Since not every word in any given language has a precise counterpart in another language, the translator is tasked with the job of sorting through his or her own bias in order to present the text in the most “sterile” nature possible. It becomes extremely difficult for the translator to decide which direction to take a work, because many words can have drastically different meanings depending on cultural context. Each such decision that a translator makes leaves a distinct vestige of their cultural or societal background.
ReplyDeleteKim’s stance on the issue of exact interpretation is that a translator should aim to be as true to the original work as possible, but ultimately not shut out the unique transformations and reconstructions that their human bias causes. In the attempt to maintain the cultural idiosyncrasies of the Korean language, Kim often plays with English. She stretches and twists it so that her creation is at times left syntactically awry, but holds the same almost indefinable aura as the original work. In this way, translation is a skilled art, as much so as the initial crafting of the piece is.
It is easy to see why Kim says that “Translation is a literary practice that has been abused and mistreated”. In fact, while reading the English version of Chronicles of a Death Foretold I was often struck by a misplaced outrage at the perceived “inaccuracy” of the translation. Having read the work in Spanish and thoroughly enjoyed it, I felt that the English translation was a deliberate distortion of Marquez’s true style and intention. The English version feels different; it is unwieldy and slow and rolls unpleasantly in your mind instead of smoothly sliding through like the Spanish version does. The characters act differently. Even the plot feels fake and unsatisfying, as if someone had taken the many layers of Crónica, highlighted and labeled them, and left them on the table for the sole purpose of eradicating the mystique of the story. However, now I believe I handled it wrong. Translation is not meant to transfer the story as an exact equivalent; it is meant to return a “transformed” version, as Kim says. It should not be treated as a comparison with the original, but rather as a supplement. In retrospect, the English Chronicles added another side to a story. The change in the piece actually adds to the solidity of the story. Just as in oral tradition, adaptations and variances seem to increase the permanence of the original instead of diminishing it.
Translating pieces is a practice that has been abused and mistreated in many ways. There are many problems that occur when one is translating. Translation are generally discarded or been kept out of literary histories because either, “the translator didn’t have the appropriate birthplace, and because translations have been plagued by a discourse of equivalence”. This assumes that for any given work there will always be an exact equivalent in another language. Kim shows us in many ways how this is not correct. Alberto also made this point during class that there are sayings that cannot be directly translated into English.
ReplyDeleteIn “Chronicle of a Death Foretold” there are many differences according to Alberto. He says there are a lot of details missed. Kim suggested this in her article that there are flaws in translating. Her three examples changed over the years. Her last example of the Korean poem differed from her first translation. This proves that every translation is different. Each translation relies on the translator, because every translator has a different point of view. Each saying could be interpreted differently from translator to translator. According to Alberto there are many different Spanish sayings in this book that aren’t translated correctly or they have not been added. This can make it harder to understand a book and it can also make it boring.
Translating is a very complicated process. Discussion and agreements need to be made. This is a problem because if a wrong agreement is made then the problem will always lurk in ones writing. Throughout the novel there are many different areas of which are confusing I feel this may be because of poor translation or just misunderstood. Translating meanings of phrase is the most crucial because at an important part it may be crucial for the reader to understand what is happening. Crucial parts of a book may also be left out because there are no translations. Kim has shown this in her article about translations. She shows that the description may change or be incorrect which leads to a different story.
Translating is a very complicated process because there aren’t always direct translations from one language to another.
Susie Jie Young Kim highlights the difficulty of composing a translation in the article “Entering the Pale of Literary Translation.” The article allows us to look at the problems that are encountered during the translation process and also how a translated piece will differ to the original text, both in it’s tone and in it’s message.
ReplyDeleteTo begin with Kim highlights the most basic problem when translating a text. Languages to not have exact translations for every word. This means that translations of a text will always be an interpretation by the translator (who will add their opinions based on culture into the translation) and will also suffer a loss of accuracy. This means that the translation of Chronicle of a Death Foretold that we have read will have lost some of its content due to interpretation by the author and will also have added pieces of information that reflect the translators opinion. This also means that the details in the novel are subject to change during the translation. This makes our version of Chronicle of a Death Foretold less accurate and while the general “husk” of the novel will remain the same, the details incorporated into the novel will have changed.
Also the poem/book’s structure will be changed during the translation. Grammatical structures vary from language to language and a text will have to be distorted when translated from one language to another. This movement in structure will disrupt the flow of a poem or novel and will shift the meanings based on the language it is being translated into. It also means that a different tone may be taken on my the novel. This means that whilst reading Chronicle of a death Foretold the tone that the reader picks up upon throughout the novel may not be what Marquez intended the reader to understand.
Colloquial expressions will also not have been directly translated and any of these present may give a message that is slightly different to how they were intended. This lack of direct translation also leads to awkward expressions being included in a text to stand in for colloquial phrases. Phrases that work in one language will not have direct translations or substitute phrases, this will change the overall message of the novel.
Also as translations are an ongoing process our version of Chronicle of a Death Foretold may be changed later on as the translator finds new ways of phrasing the text in English. This leads to a problem as our current understanding of the text will change upon reading the newest translation. Also different translators will put emphasis on different aspects of the novel, inevitably changing the message of the book. Different translations will have different messages carried across them.
These obstacles that are present during translation make it impossible to translate a text accurately. It also means that the confusing nature of Chronicle of a death foretold may not only be due to Marquez’s writing style. These difficulties also make it important for the reader to accept the translation as a loose adaptation of the novel, not the actual story.
Ami
Translating is a job that involves a great amount of responsibility and a great handling of various languages, but it is what allows us to share important ideas world wide. Being able to translate something accurately and effectively is an art.
ReplyDeleteSusie Jie Young Kim further explores the complexities of translating in her article. According to her, the concept of translating is flawed from the beginning due to there not being exact equivalences of words in different languages, which in turn makes translations unauthentic. However, this does not stop translators from proceeding. Jie Young Kim believes that culture and historical context has a major influence in translations due to the translator’s personal attitude, opinions, and belonging to a different culture. This shows how translating is very subjective. Another subjective problem with translation is how the translator interprets whatever he is translating. This is mainly the case when translating artistic pieces such as poems. Ideally it would be great for translators to be unemotional and almost simply dictionary-like, but of course this is un-human. Therefore, it is safe to say that the outcome is completely different and risks being more of an adaptation rather than a translation.
The structure of the text is also affected. Susie Jie Young Kim makes this obvious by giving us an example of her own attempt at translating Yi Song-bok’s poem “1959.” The grammar rules in Korean are very different from that of English which really affects the syntax and punctuation of the poem.
However, what is nice about translations is that it is a never-ending work in process. There will never be a perfect translation of something. Every translator will emphasize something different and in some rare cases even helps the work evolve and grow into something better.
In regards to the translation of Chronicles of a Death Foretold, I have actually read the original Spanish version and while re-reading it this year I have been able to compare passages. I have to say that I found the translation to be quite good in general. I think that Gabriel Garcia Marquez is not an easy author to translate because of his complicated way of narrating things. He also uses a lot of Spanish vernacular and even goes as specific as using very Colombian words which must make the job of translating much harder. Actually I find that it is this specificity in diction that makes the story feel so real and authentic in Spanish. In this regard, the English version is at a disadvantage because of the cultural difference. The English-speaking readers will not be able to identify as much to the story’s context as an Hispanic reader. Nevertheless, there were some sentences in the English version that were more powerful than in the Spanish version. I cannot remember the exact sentence, but I remember that the English version used the word “spattered” instead of a softer verb in Spanish, which made the sentence a lot more impacting. Jie Young Kim argued that the translator will often be slightly subjective in regards to the culture and historical context of the story, but I found this translated version to be mostly accurate and neutral. I respect this translator, not only did he succeed at translating a work as hard as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, but he still managed to captivate the reader just as well.
Frankly, before reading Kim’s article, my views on translation were hazy and limited themselves to the realm of direct translation, that of physically and literally switching meanings and ideas from one language to another, with sufficient depth to convey a general understanding to the reader, similar to that received when reading the original version. But Kim’s excellent manipulation of her “1959” example made me view it otherwise. In this newly adopted perspective, I understood the complex web of intricacies which a translator is faced with every time he/she translates a literary work. This web does impose the challenges of abandoning biases to work in the most “sterile” medium possible. These problems though, aren’t only restricted to the more obvious limitations of lack of words with literal meaning in both languages or hardships in correlating grammatical patterns, they run much deeper.
ReplyDelete“We don’t have that expression in English” and “This doesn’t sound right” are expressions of concern voiced by native readers venturing on translated works. This allows one to conclude that the main goal of the translator isn’t solely to mechanically transpose a work from one language to another, but to reflect meaning and tone in an equally efficient means. This involves accurately evoking feelings, and intention of the original author in the translation, whilst maintaining a trace of personal involvement, such as the author’s age, gender, and background. Finally she states that the historical relationships between the nations involved in the translation process could act as an involved mediator, at the halfway between the two works, it could have great influence on the outcome of the translation as historical relationships could surface similarities only applicable to the involved parties.
Once accustomed to the spectacles of this new paradigm, my understanding and appreciation of chronicles of a death foretold has changed drastically. The ideas and phrases which stood out as being surprisingly dull or nonchalant now come into a new context, that of being inaccurately translated. But this inaccuracy isn’t a fault which I place on the translator Gregory Rabassa, instead, it is an understandable one after comprehending Kim’s points on the strenuous dilemmas of translation.
Furthermore, it is not that I believe the English version of CoADF is less valuable in a literary sense, instead it comes to my attention that it has its own scale of value, one which can be measured through the original intentions of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, as I understand that concurrently attempting to evoke mood, meaning, emotion, and tone can reach territory of impossibility, and lead to the translator being forced to omit one of those aspects. Conversely, I think reading the original Spanish version would be a momentous change for most readers (Spanish speakers) as the ideas received from the English translation will appear to expand or even change when read in the language of original intention.
Naturally though, language contains extensive margins for adaptability and flexibility, which has allowed the accurate transmission of the main ideas, the main somber and cryptic moods and the overall tone of CoADF.
David N.V.
Translation Blog Post
ReplyDeleteTranslating literature is harder than most of society assumes it to be. When trying to find a recommendable equivalent in a different language from the original, a translator would stumble across problems like grammar, not being able to find a direct translation for a word and just being able to rewrite it in the particular style of language we use today. In this article Susie Jie Young Kim explains these difficulties with translation as she translates her own work. She writes about how, when rewriting a work, the culture and background of the translator affects the piece just as much as the original author’s culture would have affected the final piece of literature. To truly translate a piece of writing, one must know the piece really well and fully understand the meaning and metaphorical background behind the words. Not until this knowledge of the literature is acquired will a translator be able to impressively portray the original authors thoughts behind the writing and the true meaning of the piece. Although translators try their best to fully enable readers to understand the literature the same way in both languages it is extremely difficult to reproduce a piece of literature without changing the tiniest part of the overall meaning, in a sense translating can be a form of individual writing. Translations that have been changed to the extreme are considered to be more adaptations than literal translations. All of these different ways to make mistakes in translation leaves the translator with a rather difficult job, which makes the task of translating literature a much more respectable job than originally thought. I personally think that literary translation is important in the method of sharing classic storytelling throughout the whole of society, but if the translator is not portraying the original work to the best of his ability, than I think that translated works are best left alone. Translation should be left to the blessed few who posses the ability to truly translate literature.
Translating a work of literature is a complicated practice with many implications. Kim explores this in the article and gives examples using the poem “1958” which she has translated from Korean to English several times.
ReplyDeleteA straight word-by-word translation of a text can be hard enough since many languages differ in grammatical structure and some words might not even exist. The translator then has to be able to read between the lines, understand the meaning behind it and convert it into a version in another language that is as similar as possible. What is even harder is when the piece of literature is as complex and well written as that of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. In works like this, almost every line is an important key to the greater message of the story. The translator has to be able to interpret what the author wanted to convey with his writing and then write an equivalent in another language. Sometimes it can be hard to both create the same message and hidden meanings behind a text and at the same time create the original fluidity and diction. Another problem with translations that Kim discusses is the problem with different interpretations. Even though a translator will do his/her best to see the initial meaning of a text, he/she can never be exactly correct. Kim even says that the Korean poem “1959”, which she has translated several times, has turned out differently every time. So even for the same person, a literary work can have several interpretations. Additionally, the reader will also have own thoughts and interpretations of the translated work, and it makes you wonder how much this second interpretation of a work has changed from the original. Also of this, Kim gives an example and says that some Korean translators “did not even know which language the text that they were translating had originally been written in”. If the story is change too many times, perhaps the original meaning will be lost.
Even with “Chronicles of a Death Foretold”, which is said to be a fantastically written translation, this is true too some extent. When reading the book in Spanish and English there are still many things and details that are taken out of the translated version or are translated incorrectly. An external factor to such problems can also be culture. Too translate a work in a good way it is very helpful to understand the essence of the culture in which it takes place because it helps the translator to understand traditions and sayings that might not exist in the language in which the text is being translated to. This could be a reason for why some parts in “Chronicles of a Death Foretold” seem to be a little awkward, even though they of course fit into the story in general. But even with some flaws, the translated version is probably very well written considering how difficult it can be to translate someone else’s work.
The art of translation is one that is often heavily underestimated. Many people dont realize that a text cannot simply be translated word for word. There is a never ending process behind translation. Before reading Susie Jie Young Kim's article, I expected her to metion obstacles in translating literary works such as grammer, punctuation, expression, mood and tone. I did not however expect the cultural background of the translator to have an influence on the piece he/she is translating. "I am very aware of the fact that my various identities as a Korean, a scholar of Korean literature, and a woman all leave their respective traces on my translations." I found this statment to be very interesting. After giving it thought, I realized that the identity of a translator can in fact heavily influence their work. A translation is an adaptation. Thus meaning that the translation of a work by a person from a different background, will be an interpretation of the original text. This may or may not effect the original message of the text depeding on factors such as diction, rythm, punctuation and sometimes even word order.
ReplyDeleteOne of the major problems with translation that Susie Jie Young Kim mentions in her article is that of colloquial words and expressions. These are simply impossible to translate. One of the reasons being that they may not even have an equivalent in the language that the original text is being translated into. The second reason is that these words and expressions are based on culture. A person from a different culture would not understand the meaning behind the expression or word. I find colloquialism to be one of the most problematic obstacles in translation. A work looses alot of its original essences when it looses its "culture".
Chronicles of a Death Foretold is a book that in its original language contains many colloquial expressions and words. Having read both the original spanish version and its english counterpart I undestand how a piece of literature can really change after is has been translated. I must however say that Mr. Gregory Rabassa did a relativley good job when translating Gabriel Garcia Marquez's CoADF. I felt that he had managed to help the english translation retain some of its original rythm and mood even though large portions of the text had to be almost entirley changed due to the colloquialism of the original text.
“The act of translation is not the act of copying contingent on the linguistic principal of equivalent. The text is filtered and contaminated through the translation and thereby transformed...” I personally never thought translation would be such a complicated work; however, after reading Susie Jie’s article I was able to understand the art of translation and how difficult it is. In her article Kim explores many challenges on can face during translation.
ReplyDeleteOne problem is for translation to operate in artificial way, one would have to assume that language lucks any adaptability and flexibility in order to deliver the message to the readers and this causes the poem to lose its cultural context. Language is also another problem in translation. Some don’t even know which language the text they were translating had originally been written in. According to Kim most people comment on how “We don’t have that expression in English.” And this happens frequently due to misreading the text or simply mistyping.
Other than the cultural and language problems, there are also external factors that affect the translation. The historical relation of the two literary traditions can also affect the translators approach towards the process.
Translation requires negotiation and this also has to do with rhythm and diction grammar lines and adding or subtracting of information that might change the nature of the poem.
One problem is for translation to operate in artificial way, one would have to assume that language lucks any adaptability and flexibility and is therefore impervious to its cultural context. Language is also another problem in translation. Some don’t even know which language the text they were translating had originally been written in.
Other than the cultural and language problems, there are also external factors that affect the translation. The historical relation of the two literary traditions can also affect the translators approach towards the process.
Translating a poem, a novel or even an article can be arduous and challenging. Kim explores the art of translation in her article, Entering the Pale of Literary Translation and explains the challenges that her and many other translators face whilst at work. The main focus of any translator is to successfully articulate the piece of literature in another language whilst keeping true to the original text. For different translators this may mean different things. Whilst translating poems one translator might keep to the rhythm and flow of the poem whilst another might focus on finding the right words to depict the same scene. This creates large problems because there will always be several interpretations of one work in several different languages, which will all be very different.
ReplyDeleteThe Chronicles of a Death Foretold was a short story that involved several intricate characters, crude humor and was very difficult to follow. When I found out that this work was translated from Spanish I was both surprised, then skeptic to believe that a translated work could captivate the reader without a hint of awkward phrasing. It is hard to judge whether or not this book holds true to the original, because I have not read it, nor would I understand it. When a work is translated there is one main thing that translators like Kim consider. This is whether or not the translated piece conveys the same points as the original. And to make sure that they have provided an adequate piece that keeps the same elements as the original.
Every language is complex and different from every other, because of this not every word can translate over into a different language with one hundred percent accuracy. What makes translating works so difficult is that majority of work consist of personal choice and judgment. The problem is this is the conflicting ideas and thoughts on what a piece is really trying to say. As I said earlier the work of a translator is very difficult, even for the simplest stories. To imagine that Marquez translated such a complex story, and pulled it off with a national best-selling novel speaks to all translators that it can be done!
Susie Jie Young Kim emphasizes the fact that translation of literary works is for more tedious than people may tend to believe. Through translation the true essence of a story gets distorted and a loss is dramatic effect occurs. The primary issue that Kim portrays is that there is seldom a direct translation from one language to the next. Literary aspects such as irony, pun, sarcasm and caricature present a great challenge to transfer from one language to the next. Translated works are pedestrian. When certain works are translated some of these literary aspects are lost rendering them abstract and very basic, in terms of literary style. Kim also reiterates the fact that translation is not a mechanical or formulaic process but a process where deep analogy and thought is required in order to maintain the essence of the story.
ReplyDeleteLanguage is linked to culture. When translating a work it is very difficult to maintain the cultural references that the author originally intended to portray. This, therefore, could alter how the message of a story is conveyed and trying to maintain this message is very challenging. Kim also dwells about how many time translations are not even based on the original book. This leads to further difficulty as the individual who initially translated the work could have already distorted the style of writing or the message.
In the novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold these difficulties that Kim experiences are visible. While reading the novel, certain phrases did not sound authentic and lacked flow. Since, Marquez writes in an unorthodox fashion, non linear, it presents an even greater hurdle for translators to maintain the original meaning. Although the novel still portrays excellent representations of imagery, foreshadowing, magical realism, biblical illusion and conflict between man vs. society, there are still certain gaps in coherence in the story. Due to the very reason that there is never a direct translation Mr. Gregory Rabassa, the translator of CoAFD, had to drastically change the manner in which Marquex originally wrote the novel. Despite all the hurdles Mr. Gregory Rabassa had to overcome, the novel not propagates the original message but manages to maintain a great deal of the literary aspects that would otherwise lead the novel to be mundane.
SAHAN
Literary Translation
ReplyDeleteTranslation of a work from one language to another seems like a simple enough effort. Outsiders presume that one must only translate each word into the other language, due to their limited knowledge of the profession and difficulty of the task. Translating a piece of literature is a grueling experience, yet it also often goes unrewarded.
Translators are seen as people who do a minor, necessary but unimportant job to rephrase literature in another language. In fact, translators create art in their own way. They do not just work like a living dictionary. The complexity of languages means that the translators have to be able to interpret works to find their integral messages and important themes. An accurate translation may not convey an author’s message, and this is what a translator strives to do. They not only attempt to keep the language intact, but also maintain the impact left on the readers from the original work.
Translators have a much more difficult job than many assume, as they must endeavor to reconstruct the mood and tone of a piece of literature in a new language. Mood and tone are much more fluid and dynamic than many literary devices, and therefore translators have a difficult time tackling them. As Gregory Rabassa explains in the article You Can’t Say “Ain’t” in Spanish or Can You?, in translation, “nothing is ever static.” Similarly, translators must capture the intention of metaphors and allegory if no the meaning, in order to represent them correctly in the translated piece. Often, the original language varies so greatly that the translator must make allowances and use their imagination to make the connections in the text integral to the plot and author’s intention. An example of this would be the “adaptations” that translator Susie Kim describes in Entering the Pale of Literary Translation.
I’m lucky enough to have read both versions of the novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, both in the original Spanish and the translated English. Unfortunately, many of the issues with translation mentioned in the article affected the translation of Chronicle of a Death Foretold as well. The biggest omission in the translated version was the more raunchy aspects of the original novel. Many of the more specific vulgarities Marquez used do not translate with the same effect to English, and so I understand the reason behind these missing bits and pieces. I believe this exclusion could be beneficial to the English readers, as it would obviously make readers uncomfortable.
In conclusion, translation is not only a necessary task but also a vital one and more importantly, an artistic one. They translate and analyze important features of the work, but also elaborate on these to best carry over the mood from the work. Translators are creators in their own right who should be better recognized for their efforts.
John Robert Haynes
In Susie Jie Young Kim’s article, “Entering the Pale of Literary Translation”, the author investigates interesting challenges that literary translation presents in different works. Kim believes that the fundamental “adaptability and flexibility” of language is what makes it impossible to translate a piece of writing and have it keep its exact translation or meaning. When translating a text, it is very difficult for the translator to decide on how to translate the text successfully. When a text is translated, the translator has to make sure she uses the correct context since many words have different meanings depending on how they are used.
ReplyDeleteKim’s personal opinion on how a translator should translate their text is that they should always aim and strive to make the interpretation as original as possible but not get rid of the text’s true meaning and cultural significance. Kim is known for playing around with the English language when she is translating a text; she changes the words and format of the text so that the translation doesn’t destroy the originality of the original text. Kim strongly believes that translation is an art, and must be done properly.
After reading Kim’s article I strongly agree with her is when she says “Translation is a literary practice that has been abused and mistreated. When I read books that have been translated from French to English, I often stumble upon areas where I am disappointed with the translation of the phrases and sentences. I enjoyed reading Kim’s article and can now have a better depth of understanding when it comes to translating texts. I know understand that a translation should never destroy the originality of an original text but should just make it more understandable in a supplementary way.
In the Article Entering the Pale of Literary Translation, Susi Jie Young Kim discusses the struggles she as a translator faces when attempting to “properly” translate something from Korean to English or vise versa. The reason I quoted the word properly is because of the points expressed in the given article. Kim discusses how every translator has their own translation bias because of the many areas in translation where judgment is needed. As a uni-linguist, I can’t say that I know the complexities of any other language and that I can say by experience the difficulties of translation. However I have briefly studies several languages and I can correctly comment on the surface challenges that translation brings. For example, in French, “Revenons à nos moutons,” literally means, “let's come back to our sheep.” However a translator would need to use their judgment to translate the phrase into what it would mean in English which is, ”let's get back to the subject at hand.” Or they could translate it to, “let’s get back on track,” and the list goes on. Reading this article and understanding the topic at hand really affected my reflection of Chronicle of a Death Foretold. It made me realize that the original text could have, and quite possibly did have a different flow, writing style, mood, even some of the metaphors and other important literary aspects could have easily been overlooked by the translator. I now wish I was multilingual so that I could read a text in different languages and see what affect translation has on the text as a whole.
ReplyDeleteChronicle of a Death Foretold, a novel by Garcia Marquez was originally written in Spanish and then translated into English. As we have learned from Susie Jie Young Kim's experiences in translating between English and Korean literature that this can be impossible to do without flaw. A number of factors affect the way a translation turns out including the background or emotional state of the translator. A lot also depends on the way the translator interprets the intentions of the author. It becomes especially crucial when obstacles such as grammar get in the way of an completely untarnished translation because the translator needs to twist and manipulate the sentence so that the content remains as close as possible to the original without losing its mood and style. This poses a problem as it is impossible for a translator to precisely grasp the authors objectives without being clouded by their own interpretation. Another big issue that tends to steal from an authors original work is the use of untranslatable sentences like sayings or expressions that dont make sense in other languages. Sentences like "give me a hand" or "get off my back" will most likely need to be replaced by the closest equivalent the translator can find in the other language in order to have it make sense.
ReplyDeleteAll these things lead to a margin of error in the work that can in some cases lead to change in mood or upsetting the coherence of some other literary techniques the author applied with care in the original text.
It seems that the problems with translations are universal so Chronicle of a Death Foretold is no different. If i had the ability to read the text in Spanish i would be able to better explain the affect the translation has had on the original however some things do allow us to notice that it has been translated. It seemed when i read the novel that it retained, for lack of a better description, a "Spanish accent." Perhaps it was Marquez's original style but the book seems choppy and sometimes awkward in the way its written in the way that seems only a non-english writer would write. I have however read other spanish translated novels that did not have this characteristic. Perhaps there was a difference in style of the authors writing or the translators translations or both, i'll never know without being able to speak spanish
In the article "Entering a Pale of Literary Translation" by Susie Jie Young Kim, she goes on to tell us how translation has actually be "mis-used and mistreated" in various ways, most people think that translation is just easy and that there is always another word in another language to express the same thing, but there isn't. In kims work she encountered a really creative way of translation, in Korea they would literally "adapt" the language, which is liberal translations which would not have much effect at all, and would pretty much ruin the piece of literature. There are many things involved in translating but mostly there is also external factors that majorly effect literary translations. For example the translators background and position in life comes into work, and also "the historical relationship of the two literary traditions". Translating is not a simple process where every word is translated to mean the same thing in another language, the text gets transformed by the translator in its content and its physical appearance. Many things mean similar things in other languages but can appear harsher, or having more emotion. Kim states that translation can never be complete, it takes years of work to perfect it, and even that it doesnt seem quite perfect. 1959 is a great example by Kim. After writing this poem, she overlooked it again, and had a completely new share of it, things that did not strike her before had done so now which changed her view on the translation, and so she translated again and again. A big change made in the different versions was punctuation, because "Korean grammar is such that, more often than not, an English translation much invert the order of a Korean sentence". During her changes, she also came across words that did not fully fit the situation, and so she pondered other words that truely expressed what she was trying to say.
ReplyDeleteIn the article "Entering a Pale of Literary Translation" by Susie Jie Young Kim, we see how translating a piece of literature wither it is a poem, a book or a article, that no matter what some things are just lost in translation. While translating pieces of writing we have to take in account that in some languages phrases may have different meanings then the literal writing in some sense. She tells us how many people believe that translating a piece of literature is easy while in retrospect it is actually a very difficult task.
ReplyDeleteIn the article we see how the author of the article Susie Jie Young Kim translates a poem several times and sees a different meaning each time. Wither the translation is what is really meant by the original author or wither the translation is a accurate description of what is meant to be said.
The book "Chronicle of a Death Foretold" originally was written in Spanish. Like everything else that has been translated from one language to another some meanings of things may be different in English then they were originally in Spanish. The author of the article also says that some meanings do not fit with the rest of a sentence. That the actual meaning of the word does not fit the situation, "Korean grammar is such that, more often that not, an English translation much invert the order of a Korean sentence".
In conclusion translating a piece is a crucial piece in literature, and without the people who translate literature we wouldn't have as much of a variety in reading material. Although we will sometimes never know if the translation is correct or not we know that the translation we have received means something for us.
Literary translation is no easy feat. There are factors that need to be considered and addressed. From reading this article it seems that the hardest part of any literary translation is capturing the true essence of the work. It is interesting to read that some translators do not even know which language the text was originally written in. The translator’s approach to any work is influenced by the historical relationship of the two literary traditions. The text has to be filtered through the translator, both in its physical appearance and its content. The author says that poetry has more freedom in the process of translation because of poetry meant to being cryptic.
ReplyDeleteTranslators may have to leave works, that they have difficulty translating, for some time so that later on they can approach the work with fresh eyes. A piece of work cannot not be translated word for word. Therefore, one would have to make imaginative negotiations with the original work to find the best way to interpret different phrases. The translation of any work, may it be a novel or poem, requires the translator to think critically on whether their new work nest represents the original piece.
Susie Jie Young Kim accounts her experience as an English translator of the Korean language, as largely affected by one’s background, be it historical, cultural or personal experience. Therefore these can affect the translation of a work in an adverse manner, in which the meaning and impression are altered, or in an effective manner where, the spirit remains true to the original work. The “spirit” of the work is the intent of the original author, laid down by its content. The difficulty in maintaining this is subject to the translator’s capability to filter it through their one literary craftsmanship to reshape its physical appearance, perhaps creating technical alterations, but preserving the spirit of the author’s work. For this reason, Kim acknowledges the mainstream view, that translator’s harm the original author’s work, by no capturing its essence.
ReplyDeleteKim acknowledges that translation is not a perfect science, particularly translating poetry, however neither is writing an original piece of literature to evoke an intended emotion. To compensate for any perceived inaccuracies, the reader is subject to perception as much as the translator and original author. Before introducing the poem “1959” by Yi-Song Bok, she adds the historical context of Korea’s post-war trauma and the dire social effects, altering the reader’s view towards the poem and have a better perspective on what the poem attempts to evoke, whereas she has the privilege of understanding it from her Korean background, and in a more “purist” sense. Another “filtering” system is also altering the grammar and vocabulary of the poem to achieve better fluidity, rhythm, and evoke a more genuine emotion with regards to the original version. Kim removes the capital letters, punctuation, rephrases and uses synonyms in revised versions, noting that translation is on ongoing process where effects of time and the relevance of the translation alter her view on the new poem.
In “Chronicle of a Death Foretold”, our translation seems to lack technical fluidity and the nuances of Spanish language that would seem to romanticize the content of the story. The reader may not have the right cultural background, in terms of history and tradition to fully comprehend the emotion associated with the translation. Marquez may have intentionally loaded certain words with intent, and feeling that may have not transpired in the translated work, as it seemed to be detached from its content. Lastly Marquez’s work is generally in the genre of magical realism, which relies poetic like diction, and verbal nuances to leave subtle impressions of extraordinary phenomena.
With Kim’s commentary on the translation, it illuminates the difficulties of achieving an accurate translation of literature work in style, content and appearance, causing me to ponder the genuineness of the translated “Chronicle of a Death Foretold” to the original Spanish one.
Translation
ReplyDeleteKim is saying that translation depends on the reader. It’s difficult because every individual interprets things differently. When reading a translated piece, you could be reading the interpretation of the translator more than the actual piece its self. This shows that reading Marquez’s work translated may have disadvantaged us. We, as readers of the translation, may not be able to get the full effect of his work and ideas.
Anisa Ahmed
Susie Jie Young Kim explores the various problem which arise when translating pieces of literature. An important challenge she as a translator faces, is the act of not interfering with the piece’s content. She as a writer influences what the piece may hold, changing the meaning to some extent. This is not in her intent for she merely wishes to create a conversions, however, she as an objective thinker tweaks the meaning by adding her own taste to the piece. The cultural differences amongst the two languages may also cause these alterations. The conversion from English to Korean causes the ‘new’ Korean to be “modernized”. This, to some extent, makes her the author of the piece of literature. Even though the content may not have been altered, the input and value of the piece have been subjected to ideals. This is a problem many translators face because they should strictly avoid any alterations made to the text. Marquez’s work may also have been subjected to this idea. The rich Spanish culture Marquez may have intended to evoke towards the reader, may have been partially lost through the act of translating. This also has to do with the vocabulary which differs in every country and culture. Words which may not directly correspond to the meaning of another may be subject the text to alterations. Certain sayings said within Korean may not be grammatically correct within the English language. This henceforth may cause controversy and confusing concerning the true meaning the ‘real’ author is trying to portray. As a result, the text is prone to being altered in various ways, depending on both the conversion and translator’s state of mind.
ReplyDelete