Before I read the texts, I always thought translating poems was very difficult to serve the same quality of work without adding any translator's thoughts or opinions. Because the poem is very vague and can have multiple meanings depending on how readers perceive it. It is not possible to just translate it literally so the translator has to understand the poem first and then he/she can work on translation. However, that will add some taste of translation and I believe it will never be original.
After reading the articles, it made me think that even though it might not be perfect, it can be as close as possible to the perfect translation. Multiple examples and some tips to translate the poems helped me understand how to make the translation better and it was very interesting to learn. I learned the importance of word choices. For example, he was talking about how adding one word in translation could completely change the visual imagination of readers. Since poems are more visual images and are only with few sentences, one word means much more than normal paragraphs. The rhythms and flow are essential and I agree with how they try not to translate literally and choose the right words the way. But, I worry that the liberty of word choice might allow the translator to create completely different poems from the originals. Therefore, I disagree with that part a little. I still believe that the poems are the most difficult text to translate.
No comments:
Post a Comment