Value of studying literature in translation

Your task is to write a blog post that evaluates the value of studying literature in translation. Your post should demonstrate an awareness of specific benefits and challenges through references to today’s readings, as well as make tangible connections to the learning outcome from Part 3 of the course. This post should be an analytical response. See attached articles from our activity today.

As our course has recently shifted its focus unto translated Literature, the novel The thief and the Dog, approaching this topic analytically will further expand our understanding. Having read the readings, some interesting bits of information emerged from the usual familiar content. From the interview with  Daniel Hahn, director of the British Centre for Literary Translation , some things stated were rather relevant to this evaluation. When asked how he translates literary works , the process of it, he replies that its near to impossible to translate a story word for word. That there is no single word that fully suits the chosen word and it is rather a creative process. Daniel explains how translation is a slow careful process wherein the translator must approach the test creatively and analytically , deciphering the meaning behind every word and why the author chose to use that specific term etc in order to correctly translate. So in essence, translation is nearly writing another story entirely, where words have to be chosen rather than found. Studying literature in translation provides us with a new perspective on literature as when different languages and cultures create stories that are highlighted by their take on the world, we're closed off from a variety of mentalities and perceptions. Accessing a translated literary text opens a door for us in terms of really becoming familiar with how a translator chose to engage the english language with another one, how he/she has managed to create the same exact suspension, anger, nervousness and happiness within the readers through a different language. Studying this will enable us to see how a translator has to work with the culture and general atmosphere of the location as well as the characteristics of the author and the people within the story in order to achieve the same effects, linguistically. It is also evident how controversy can arise from the translation of literary works. Lin Fen, a popular author who" spoke in the language of the people, writing vividly of youth discovering sex and poking fun at Communist dogmas, a writer who did not dress up his often profanity-littered language in the formalities beloved by the political establishment." so he effectively comunicated his work and that raised criticism.  Feng did not expect that his translation of 'Stray Birds', a collection of 300-odd short verses penned by Tagore in 1916, would turn out to be perhaps his most controversial." So there are definitely some negative aspects to translating works, as the translator may be blamed for his skills or chosen words.