Rebecca Copeland has been working as a translator and has always considered the importance of translation. When I was reading the original text "Hearing Voices: My Encounters with Translations," I was intrigued when she said, "Everything can be translated." People often say this part of the sentence or paragraph is not translatable because a language is strongly related to a culture. Of course, the direct/literal translation comes out as odd in some languages. It often happens when translating Japanese into English. Some sentences cannot be directly translated, but rather, we have to consider what the author is trying to say in the text.
To solve this issue, the author describes how important it is for the translator to comprehend and appreciate the text instead of focusing on translating words for words. The author introduced Siever's work as an example. Copeland says, "Words are metaphors after all, place holders for meanings that are conditioned by context." This quote changed my point of view toward translation because I used to think that translators should focus on translating words for words in order not to include extra meanings in the text. However, the author claims that translating words for words is not accurate translation because this method does not always describe the same thing between two languages. From now on, I should focus on understanding texts more.
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