Meredith McKinney's translation

ruoyi

I still can't believe the entire talk used the same format, without even a different PowerPoint slide... During the nearly two-hour "word choice" talk, I realized, wow, isn't this exactly what I originally envisioned for my final project? But I was later "corrected" to focus on translated literature divorced from its cultural context. What followed wasn't included in her speech but I found it on the website myself. From her decision to retain the original titles of works like "Kokoro" and "Sei Shonagon," I understood that she wanted her English-speaking readers to embark on a journey to unfamiliar worlds, to "taste its and other languages' strangeness." I remember being amazed by the descriptions of the four seasons at the beginning of the translated Chinese"Sei Shonagon" piece, but as I progressed, perhaps due to its diary format, it became dull and uninteresting. Now, looking at the English translation again, it's as she said: without understanding the history and context, it's even more incomprehensible. I deeply admire those who can fully translate classical literature at least, they were very dry and extremely hard to read. Additionally, it's interesting that I rarely comment on the correctness of other people's translations out of respect for the translator, as words belong to the readers themselves, and no one can speculate or assume how words make readers feel. But the translation of "homophobia" brought up in the last(?) class and the criticisms she made of the other two translation this time seem to share a similar vein. For me, this work doesn't belong to anyone; the meanings that everyone can express are naturally different. Based on identity and status, I might like to include footnotes, but you never do; I might prefer to read the entire book before translating, while you might start translating right away; I might abbreviate here because I can't fathom the original author's mindset, but you might feel that details should be added here. Yet, while she says "I don't like criticism," she critique throughout the entire talk. Quite opinionated indeed.

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