Reading Response

 I enjoyed reading about various translation styles in "The Mysteries of Translation", and translators' thoughts in their interviews. However, I found myself wanting more concrete examples like the one that was in "The Mysteries of Translation". I also found myself overwhelmed by the abundance of people's names, finding it hard to keep them all in my head at once considering I haven't heard of most of the people mentioned. I also wondered if the reason Wendy Lesser preferred the translation of Birnbaum was because she read it first, or if she would have preferred it all the same even if she had read Rubin's first. 

I found it interesting how Wendy Lesser compared being monolingual to being in prison. This analogy works in two ways I think. More apparently, communicating with people who don't share a language with you is difficult to impossible, and it's almost as if there is a door that can only be unlocked by learning their language. Elements of their culture, their life, and any nuance that can only be captured in their language will forever be unknown to you. Secondly, languages themselves I believe can influence the very thought patterns of those who are familiar with them. This means that the way a native Japanese speaker thinks will be different from the way a native English speaker thinks, not only by virtue of a potentially different upbringing but by virtue of their mother tongue being different. Even if you know multiple languages, I think you are forever stuck in the box of your first. You may be able to get glimpses of the world others have to offer, but you will never come to see it as well as a native speaker will. 

Jordan