Day 13
Tues. Dec. 6
Discussion of Qian Qianyi article
Discussion domestication vs. foreignization
Discussion of faithfulness
Homework:
➤ Work on your final project
Your final challenge translation is due at midnight on Sunday (China time) and your translator’s note is due at midnight on Tuesday (China time). Please read this handout which contains important reminders about the final project and also some advice about the final translator’s note.
➤ Fill out the course evaluation
You should have received in your email inbox a link to a course evaluation for this course. Please fill it out! I would appreciate it if you could offer your feedback in writing — a brief a paragraph, or at least a few sentences, explaining what you think was most successful about this course and/or how you’d suggest I alter it in the future. (I don’t really care about the numbers, but I read written feedback from students very carefully and take it quiet seriously.) Your comments will have a direct effect on future students’ experience of the course, so I’d be grateful if you’d take the time to write!
➤ rEad handout and think about question of “Faithfulness”
Please look at the examples on this handout — each of these represents a place in one of your translations this session where I noticed an intentional deviation from the original text that some readers or translators might question. For each of the deviations on the handout, please think of an argument for the deviation (why might the deviation be a good idea?) and an argument against the deviation (why might the deviation be a bad idea?). Come to next class ready to share these arguments.
➤ Supplementary reading
If you found the topic of domestication vs. foreignization interesting, you might enjoy reading Chapter 15 of Is That a Fish in Your Ear, which is called “Bibles and Bananas: The Vertical Axis of Translation Relations.” This chapter explores some of the ways in which issues of power and prestige in the world affect how translation is practiced and how translated texts are viewed.
➤ Come with any questions you have about translation
Next class I plan to dedicate about half of class time to a free-from Q&A session about translation. I’ll briefly tell the story of my own career as a translator, then I’ll open up the floor to any questions you have about translation—as an art, as a practice, as a career, as a business, whatever aspects you’re interested in. So please come prepared to ask a question or two! (I’ll probably conduct this part of class in English rather than Chinese.)