Translation Today Spring 2024

Ruoyi Marjorie Salvadon talks about translating feminist literature, shedding light on how her personal background has infused her translations with unique perspectives. One captivating aspect she discusses is the portrayal of Haiti's hard-fought independence from French colonization within the novel—a theme that resonates deeply with her both fictionally and in her real-life experiences. Her profound connection to the text reflects her prowess as a cultural translator, adept at capturing the essence of a narrative beyond mere words. Salvadon also offers insightful recommendations for fellow translators, advocating for collaborative efforts(translating with someone else) as she herself co-translated the book Tomboy with another female translator. This collaborative approach, enriched by diverse cultural backgrounds, fosters a dynamic exchange of ideas essential to the translation process. Additionally, she emphasizes the importance of taking risks even if diverging from conventio...

 Armaan Arif Professor Vincent  22/04/2024    The concept of doing whatever you love in life has always been so fascinating. Many people would tell you to follow your passions, others might tell you to go to a certain field to be financially stable. And it has always been a tough choice for many people around the world.  As I start to draw a lot of my attention to my paper, I’ve started to look at a lot of these lectures with a different angle. My focus has become to try find phrases and quotes that can help support my argument, but that is a given. I also now try to understand the lecturer’s mindset, and what they’re trying to teach us about their style. By doing this, I feel like I can use these messages to try and support my argument to try prove why translators are like writers. Marjorie Salvodon’s lecture was great, I really appreciated when she said insinuated that her personal background is a major factor in her decision making when she translates. I thin...

Salvadon views translation as a creative passion and pursuit. Due to her concerns for feminist and colonialist themes, she chooses to translate works surrounding these topics. Her translation of "Tomboy" showcases her strong connection to the text, which explores themes of enslavement, queer and biracial struggles, resonating deeply with Salvadon. Unlike previous translators, Salvadon dives straight into providing advice for her audience. Her four specific recommendations include collaborating with others, taking risks, engaging in literary comparisons, and translating multi-voiced novels. The most intriguing advice is on collaborative translation, despite the challenges it presents. Salvadon believes that despite potential clashes, working with another individual can lead to a stronger translation, breaking the isolation often felt in the process. The second piece of advice, taking risks even when facing disagreement, is also compelling. Salvadon addresses critiques of her t...

 Salvadon offered us a new and final perspective on translation – the one of a translator who gets to choose what she works on. Salvadon has been able to work on texts that she is passionate about and which share a series of characteristics: they are written by feminist authors, they have complex characters, and they present the impact of French colonization and its legacy. The way she talked about the text she translated really reflected the passion she has for these texts, the way she connects with them, and how they offer different and complex views on the impacts of colonization. The biggest example of how she connects deeply with the texts was when she broke down when reading the last paragraphs of her latest translation project  Désirée Congo. In the final pages of the novel Haiti has finally won its independence and the silhouettes of the colonizer's ships can be seen on the horizon as they leave the island. The fact that she isn't able to read this scene without crying...

“Translate what you love, what moves you. If you keep going back to it, translate it.” Marjorie Salvodon perfectly summed up her talk with this quote, capturing the essence of the entire lecture series. Truly, what an amazing series we had the pleasure of experiencing this semester! It's clear that each speaker we heard from genuinely translates what they love. As a self-proclaimed wild-card translator, Salvodon shared insights on how to embrace artistic freedom in translation. Her advice included engaging in co-translation, taking risks—even when others may not agree—reading works that serve as literary companions, and tackling multivoiced novels. We were gifted yet another perspective on how to view translation. Personally, I found her insights into co-translation the most enlightening. Salvodon described it as strengthening a relationship, almost like creating ‘a child’ together, and portrayed translation as something that can drive you crazy—intense, but fascinating. The inevit...

Alexander Pfau      Salvadon's translations are a passion project, more than her job. As a university professor, her income allows her to work on translation in her off time while still being able to make money. Her translations are all feminist texts, focused on the Caribbean islands. The most interesting thing about her to me however, was her pronunciation of the word "Haiti". She says it like "He-di", and in a quick fashion, much different than the normal American would. I think it symbolizes her focus on identity, and how important a place's history is in giving it its own identity and purpose. In one of her excerpts, she even highlights how the character is struggling to find their identity in the French world that is attempting to shun them. With the goal of discerning the "blackness" from a text and expelling it onto the audience, she feels her translations are a high stakes race to preserve the history of her own history.     The readings f...

  04/17/2024 Armaan Arif Professor Vincent     Emily Wilson's lecture was one of my favorites to witness this semester. Her passion for her work was so clear to see throughout her explanations of the text. I felt that she was one of the translators who was easy to connect to because of her passionate readings. I was grateful for the way she started the lecture by asking the "What is translation?" question and explaining the "translation is writing" statement. The interpretation of those slides really got me thinking about what I should write in my "Are translators writers" paper. She mentioned that translation is writing due to the fact that a translator writes a whole new text in a whole different language. This asserting perspective is interesting because a lot of people would still bring up the creativity argument, saying that translators just paraphrase what is given to them. Her perspective is definitely something I would like to delve into as I r...

Wilson’s well structured and entertaining presentation really shocked. The sheer amount of love she hold for Homer and translation in general. First of all, She described Homer’s language is “magnificent but not difficult”, which totally shifted my understanding of Homer. As a person who is deeply afraid of epics, I have tried reading The Odyssey and The Iliad for many times during high school(both in Chinese and in English). However, the translation are all over complicated. Even though I found some of them beautiful, I could not finish reading it. In addition, Wilson pointed out that “theory can’t solve challenges”, which I agree. Thus, I really appreciate she leading us to close readings later on. Also, she divided translation into two parts, writing(more half) and reading(lesser half). There are many people who could read the origin, but could not write the translation. We live in a binary world, to the extend that even translation has its own binaries. I like how she listed the mi...

Ruoyi Emily Wilson's lecture was truly remarkable, as she addressed a multitude of questions and controversies surrounding the art of translation with clarity and insight. From the fundamental assertion that "translating is writing" to the nuanced exploration of concepts like "domestication vs foreignization," "archaic vs modern," and "poetic vs literal," she offered valuable perspectives that challenged conventional wisdom and invited deeper reflection. Her passionate performance of reading both the original Greek text and her own translations aloud underscored the transformative power of language, allowing listeners to grasp the nuances and beauty of her words. Hearing those words come alive in her voice was like getting a backstage pass to the power of language. And when she talked about her work through the Iliad, I can feel the love and respect she had for every character. She didn't play favorites; she saw the beauty and depth in ea...

Emily Wilson’s love and enthusiasm for the Iliad (and her other works) is infectious. I haven’t read the Iliad since my high school years, and all I could remember was that I found it boring and incomprehensible. Back then, it was never presented as anything other than required reading—maybe my teachers found it boring too? Wilson, on the other hand, has sparked a new excitement in me to read and engage with all the work she’s translated. In her talk, Wilson stated that she failed to define translation but I found her approach to it insightful and very useful. What I found particularly comforting was when she admitted that “translation is always hard,” and not just because she’s translating an ancient language. It’s hard, period.   She also stated that translation is always a form of writing. A quote from one of her slides really stuck with me: “The translator into English is writing a book in English." She didn’t elaborate much on this, but maybe she didn’t need to? It was inter...

 For me meeting Emily Wilson was kind of like meeting a celebrity, since ever since my undergrad I have read about her being the first woman translator of the Odyssey. It was then quite interesting and surprising (in a good way) when she shared the slides with the headlines that describe her work (Emily Wilson is a Woman! and Emily Wilson is a Modern!) and mentioned that she really doesn't see these as an accurate framework for her translations. In this way, she distanced herself from these simplistic statements. Once she pointed this out, it was much easier for me to focus and acknowledge all of the other things that she brought to her translations (besides a gender perspective), such as the importance of orality, complex descriptions of the characters, and a wide range of emotions. Honestly, I had never before considered the importance of performativity in The Illiad  and The Odyssey  until I heard her reading them aloud. The passionate way she read completely changed t...

Emily Wilson: A Response to Alex, Musings on Style, and a Call to Love the Premodern Dina Famin   I’d like to respond to Alex’s comment in his post: Emily Wilson said “that a literal translation is not the most truthful version of the text. Is this not a paradox, since the most truthful form of the text should be the direct translation?” It is not a paradox. What a “literal translation” is—to translators—is a translation that follows syntax to the letter, often at the expense of literary style and effect. Take, for example, this translation from Russian (an example stolen from Michael Katz’s introduction to his translation of Dostoyevsky’s Notes from Underground ): Dostoyevsky’s novel begins with these three three-word sentences in which he moves the adjective from the third to the first position: “I [am a] man sick . I [am a] spiteful man. Unattractive [am] I [a] man.” No English translator, no matter how diligent, can recreate this structure. But they can recreate...

 Alexander Pfau Emily Wilson     Emily Wilson brought more questions than answers. One of her major points was that a literal translation is not the most truthful version of the text. Is this not a paradox, since the most truthful form of the text should be the direct translation? She disagrees, and her translation follows her ideal, creating a modern text that is yet faithful to the original. Emily Wilson says she has "failed to define translation". Her opinion that, as long as a translator is trying to define the work in their own way, they're doing something right, and doing their job. She tells us her text is not modern, which to me is insane after reading Alexander Pope's text, but her point is based in fact. Phrases like "cataclysmic wrath" are not modern by any means, and so Wilson is often confused about the definition of her text by the media.     I've read the Iliad in 2 languages (kind of). Emily Wilson's was by far the most pleasant (prob...

From the in-class presentation, I was a little intimidated by Seale. Not because of her strong opinions on how the A Thousand and One Nights should be, but because she knows what she is doing in her translation. The course of A Thousand and One Nights: A Translator's Playground suggests how many translators had their approaches to this work, yet making it like a playground. Seale is like the king of kids in the playground, she knows her power and she knows what she wants. One of her especially fascinating ideas is that The Nights resists being called "a book”. It is a combination of stories that were valued as storytelling. Its unique form is not replicable by any books. Seale also mentioned how 1001 is not an exact number but an abstract concept. 1000 is like an infinite number, and that plus one means beyond infinite.  Seale pointed out that the translation of The Nights itself is a way to “keep the tradition going”. It is to keep the practice of storytelling. Storytelling i...

 Alexander Pfau Yasmine Seale's talk was something special. As a translator of the 1001 Nights, especially a female one, you are going to be under immense scrutiny, and to perform a translation as well thought out as the one she did was truly remarkable. What interested me most was the fact that, despite the translation's feminist tendencies, she didn't come into the project with an innately feminist stance, rather, the text itself is one revolving around the themes of female power in the face of a gruesome man. She mentioned Arabic as the "Love of her life", which I thought was awesome, since Arabic is one of the hardest languages in the world. I do wonder how similar it is to other old languages, or whether or not Arabic has changed throughout the ages. I think one of the most important parts of the Seale translations was that is was all there. Not in the literal sense, the text is of course complete in the English language, rather she takes everything in the 10...

Yasmine Seale: Almost Always Dina Famin   As much as we wanted the lecture to be a surprise, we asked Yasmine Seale on Thursday over dinner what she was planning to talk about. “I’m at a crossroads,” she said, “and I’d like some input.” She didn’t end up talking much about the crossroads or the input she’s looking for, only saying that there is one, and that it concerns the tension between narrative complexity, stylistic experimentation, and reader comprehension. Riding high on the excitement of the symposium, and steeped in the Nights since the start of the semester, what stuck most with me from Seale’s lecture was her explanation of the erasure poems. I’ve seen the poems before, read about how she started making them, but contemporary poetry is a field far beyond my interest and comprehension, as is contemporary art (forgive the gross generalizations), so I never really got them. But Seale highlighted a dimension I now think crucial for erasure poetry, namely awarene...

 Armaan Arif 04/07/2024 Professor Vincent Yasmine Seale presented the work not as a mere book, but as a living tradition of storytelling. She highlighted that the number "1001" is not just literal but symbolic, inviting endless contributions to this story. Seale discussed the challenges and innovations of translating such a classic. She plans to employ long, flowing sentences that span the course of a night, mimicking the storytelling technique of Shahrazad, who uses tales to stave off her fate until dawn. This choice aims to capture the original's poetic flair and emotional depth. Moreover, Seale intends to incorporate various manuscripts in her translation to reflect the historical depth and varied interpretations of The Nights . This method contrasts with traditional translations that typically cite a single source, aiming to portray the text as an evolving entity rather than a fixed work. Yasmine Seale’s lecture was a great portrayal of her translating style and ...

“Banish your embarrassment about the Nights,” Yasmine Seale encouraged the attendees of her talk “Always Almost: Approaching The 1001 Nights” emphasizing its vast history and influence. If only I could’ve heard this before the start of the MFA program’s translation seminar on the Thousand and One Nights. Admittedly, before the seminar, I was shy about the fact that my familiarity with the Nights came mostly from Disney. Now, my embarrassment is gone but only because of how much I’ve learned over the course of the semester. Even so, with this Seale led us into her beautiful talk discussing the magnitude and ever-evolving nature of the Nights. “This work could go on forever,” she said, portraying the Nights as all afterlife and as a tradition rather than a fixed text. “All we have are versions upon versions.” She shared that while the Nights is like an onion with layers that leads to a core of ‘nothing,’ it reached it’s most glorious form in Arabic. Seale, both Arab and Arabist, discuss...

 As part of the MFA in literary translation, this semester we are taking a class titled: "A Thousand and One Nights: A Translator's Playground" where we have learned the rich and complicated history surrounding the translation of The Nights . In this context, to have had the opportunity to listen to Yasmine Seale, the newest translator of this work,  was absolutely wonderful. One of the things she mentioned which I really liked was that The Nights  resists being called "a book" as it's more a tradition of storytelling.  This is very fitting since, as we have learned in this class, The Nights  is a compendium of stories that grew throughout time until eventually reaching 1001. Seale mentioned that she might be interested in adding her own stories to this ever-growing tradition since the number 1001 is less of a concrete number and more of an invitation to infinity. I also found it very interesting how the lack of a clear original or an author has provided dif...

A really good example of why you should know a bit about the speaker before the talk. And I'm that unlucky person who didn't bother to read Yasmine Seale's bio carefully before the talk. I was actually admiring how smoothly she transitioned from translating French to translating Arabic, considering that these two are languages I really love, but they are fundamentally dissimilar. Arabic is characterized by its conciseness, while French is a gender-marked cumbersome language where even 99 is "quatre-vingt-dix-neuf". So, it's very difficult, if not impossible, to translate from such sources into English or other languages. And then she said, "I was thinking of translating several French works then return to my life(?), and suddenly there's the One Thousand and One Nights for me to translate, which helped me become a freelance translator." At that moment, I was wondering why an ordinary French translator would suddenly receive a translation job for...