The Craft of TranslationRobert Hunter Distinguished University Professor John Biguenet, John Biguenet, Rainer Schulte Written by some of the most distinguished literary translators working in English today, these essays offer new and uncommon insights into the understanding and craft of translation. The contributors not only describe the complexity of translating literature but also suggest the implications of the act of translation for critics, scholars, teachers, and students. The demands of translation, according to these writers, require both comprehensive scholarship in preparing to translate a text and broad creativity in recreating the text in a new language. Translation, thus, becomes a model for the most exacting reading and the most serious scholarship. Some of the contributors lay bare the rigorous methods of literary translation in comparisons of various translations of the same piece; some discuss the problems of translating a specific passage; others speak about the lessons learned over the course of a career in translation. As these essays make clear, translators work in the space between languages and, in so doing, provide insights into the ways in which a culture makes the world verbal. Exemplary readers both of authors and of their individual works, the translators represented in this collection demonstrate that the methodologies derived from the art and craft of translation can serve as a model to revitalize the interpretation and understanding of literary works. Readers will find the opportunity to look over the shoulders of the translators gathered together in this volume an exciting and surprising experience. The act of translation emerges both as a powerful integration of linguistic, semantic, cultural, and historical thinking and as a valuable commentary on how we communicate both within a culture and from one culture to another. |
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Contents
Translation As Metaphor | 1 |
Poem 145 of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz | 13 |
Translating Medieval European Poetry | 28 |
Collaboration Revision and Other Less Forgivable Sins in Translation | 54 |
Pleasures and Problems of Translation | 70 |
Translation and Tradition in Paul Celan | 93 |
The Process of Translation | 117 |
On Translating Gunter Eichs Poem Ryoanji | 125 |
On Trying to Translate Japanese | 142 |
Common terms and phrases
alliteration answer approach beats become beginning Beowulf bright bring Burton Raffel called carry Celan choice close collaboration comes course critical cultural difficult earlier effect English example expression fact feel final follow French friends Gawain German give given Greek Hebrew idea important interpretation Japanese keep kind language later least leaves less light linguistic literal literary literature look matter meaning medieval mind mother move nature never once opening original particular passage Paul perhaps phrase poem poem's poet poetry possible present problem question reading reference render rhyme seems sense sentence simply situation sometimes sonnet sound Spanish speak specific style sure thing thought tion tradition trans translation turn verb verse voice weeping whole word writing