2/25 Readings – Cheryl

The Translator As Performer: Theater in Translation, Translation in Theater by Jeremy Tiang

There were so many things to unpack here but are the ones that stood out most to me: "translating from someone else's literal (or trot) and not knowing the language feels like performing brain surgery in thick rubber gloves." In the past few weeks having to translate from languages I don't know or barely know has felt exactly like this. I can't feel the pulse of the text and it makes me feel like I'm putting together a puzzle in the dark. I'm sure there's something to be gleaned from these exercises but in the meantime, I am grappling with this discomfort.

"Why are celebrity playwrights the ones being given leeway to be creative, whereas the rest of us are so often expected to be invisible?"

This was another line from Jeremy Tiang's talk that struck a chord—I've never thought about translation and accuracy in terms of power imbalances and hierarchies but it does feel like there's something there. Does it all boil down to star power and marketing value? Your name will be on the book cover or the playbill not if you deserve the credit, but if it will help it sell. 

Selling Chekhov Whole – On Translating The Complete Plays of Anton Chekhov by Lawrence Senelick

Senelick makes an astute point when he says to consider that as literary translators we translate a person, not necessarily a language. This could be a reference to particular quirks of the writer, or even the odd word in a different language as used by that writer unexpected and unannounced. While I don't think translators need necessarily bind themselves to a single writer for their whole careers, I can see the argument and the benefits for doing so—if translation is listening to voices, it can only help to have one voice that your ear has been trained on intensively. 

A Note on the Translation by Michael Frayn 

I like the line, "translating a play is rather like writing one," which I think goes for other genres as well, maybe poetry especially. So many writer-translators often see their work in both of these fields as occupying entirely separate spheres, when really, they are very much related. Translation is informed by the same sense for language and skill in writing that writing does, and writing can equally be influenced by the voices and subjects of the works we translated. 

On Faithfulness: The Difficulties Experienced by the Text/Performance Couple by Patrice Pavis

Compared to a novel or a poem where the text in its printed and bound form is a completed work, it makes sense to me that there could be more room for interpretation in the translation of plays since by nature plays are open to the interpretation of directors, casting directors, set designers and actors, all before the performance itself, arguably the "finished product" is delivered to its audience. It seems that it would not be unreasonable, therefore, to have a different set of standards or expectations for translations of plays than in other genres.