Day 12
Thurs. Dec. 1
Discussion of 我的妈妈是精灵 cont’d
Discussion of Peloton advertising text
Homework:
➤ Read “Darkness starts” translations, vote on a favorite
Click here read the 8 different translations of “Darkness Starts” and vote for one that you like the most (or find the most interesting) and leave a note explaining why you chose that one.
➤ Read Yang Wenfen and Jay Rubin essays
Read Yang Wenfen’s essay on domestication vs. localization. (You could also search online for the terms 归化 and 异化 to see how this subject is written about in Chinese.)
Please also read the very end of Jay Rubin’s essay “Translating Murakami” (only pages 317-320! — the parts marked in red.)
Come ready to share your thoughts on these questions:
Do you think what Jay Rubin describes doing when translating Haruki Murakami is an example of “domestication”? Why or why not?
Can you think of an example of something from one of our translation challenges that you’d consider “domestication”? Can you think of something you’d consider “foreignization”?
➤ Come ready to discuss these questions about the Lawrence Yim article on Qian Qianyi:
Come ready to share your ideas about the Chinese original with regards these questions:
Is the writing in the original Chinese hard to understand? If so, should the translation also be hard to understand? What is the difference between writing that is hard to understand and writing that is just doesn’t make sense? If a translation is hard to understand, how do we know whether it is a problem with the translation or whether the original is just by nature hard to understand?
Are there any examples here of ambiguity that are important from the translator’s perspective? Are there places where it’s important that the meaning be unclear / open-ended / leave the reader lots of room for imagination?