1. In the article, John Nathan mentions an essay by Walter Benjamin, in which he discusses the reine sprache.What do you think about the idea of the reine sprache as a philosophical idea and how do you think it relates to translation?
2. What would be your approach to handling the translation of style? Do you side with those who say it's better to try and keep the original styling or those who say to just render it in your language?
3. If we assume that individual style will almost always change or be lost in translation, can you think of anything else that is lost at the price of translation? Do you think every translator must think about what is lost at the price of translation and what is worth struggling to fit into the target language? (i.e. things which are too language specific to fit into a target language vs things which can make a translation feel more natural to read)
Optional Bonus 4. What do you think of Nathan's translation examples from Oe and Mishima?
1. I think idea of reine sprache (pure speech) is what translation is trying to achieve. Translators are trying to get through those barriers lying in between languages and eventually bringing pure speech into reality.
ReplyDelete2. I think it's always safe to keep the original styling. Though translation is a process of recreating, translators still have to be faithful to the authors. However, when direct translation does not work then it is necessary to style it in the translators' own languages.
3. I would say words like ね and よ at the end of a Japanese sentence are definitely lost in many translations. I think translators need to think of the lost and the fit and it is important to come up with a balance in between.
1. I think that reine sprache is the ultimate goal of translating, but realistically unattainable.
ReplyDelete2. I would definitely try to preserve the original style of the translation, since I feel that keeping the author's writing as close to the original while still sounding good in English is very important. I wouldn't want to exclude any part of the author's message accidentally by changing the style.
3. I feel honorifics tend to get lost in Japanese to English translations, but I feel that it isn't always necessary to take them out since they can show the dynamic of relationships between characters that isn't shown explicitly anywhere else in the text. For example, if someone calls their friend -san or -chan or -kun it can show that they have a more distant or close relationship, but the reader won't get that information if it's cut. The translator definitely must think about what they can fit and what has to be cut, and how to create this balance.