I love this, thank you for the book ideas! Have not read either Idra Novey or Katie Kitamura, I just got both. I’ve struggled with translation—I’m kind of a terrible translator. The only way for me to “understand” Japanese is to not think too hard, and that doesn’t work for translation, since I’m willfully skipping all the words and structures I don’t have an English equivalent for. But I’ve never considered myself bilingual, because my Japanese isn’t fluent. It makes me sad and frustrated to think about how poor my Japanese is, and yet I’m in that weird place where I’m better than most people who try to learn it from scratch. And many people who speak English as a second language are okay with having an accent or not having perfect grammar, but I can’t seem to forgive myself for those crimes in my Japanese.
I recently started a translation project and was frustrated within the first chapter! I thought it would “help” me to dive deep into Japanese on a line-by-line level, looking everything up in a dictionary and hiring a tutor to walk me through grammar I don’t know. I’m still not sure if I’m making my insecurity better or worse! Maybe reading fiction that delves into translators and translation will help clarify things?
Very interesting theme. Racking my brain. Is there anyone writer who pretends to be the translator of a fiction novel - but in fact is the author under a pseudonym? Don't know really. Think I have to do it myself.
Not books, but a couple of movies come to mind. Charade with Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant, in which Audrey is a UN translator, and The Interpreter with Nicole Kidman. In the former, the role is only incidental to the storyline.
I love this, thank you for the book ideas! Have not read either Idra Novey or Katie Kitamura, I just got both. I’ve struggled with translation—I’m kind of a terrible translator. The only way for me to “understand” Japanese is to not think too hard, and that doesn’t work for translation, since I’m willfully skipping all the words and structures I don’t have an English equivalent for. But I’ve never considered myself bilingual, because my Japanese isn’t fluent. It makes me sad and frustrated to think about how poor my Japanese is, and yet I’m in that weird place where I’m better than most people who try to learn it from scratch. And many people who speak English as a second language are okay with having an accent or not having perfect grammar, but I can’t seem to forgive myself for those crimes in my Japanese.
I recently started a translation project and was frustrated within the first chapter! I thought it would “help” me to dive deep into Japanese on a line-by-line level, looking everything up in a dictionary and hiring a tutor to walk me through grammar I don’t know. I’m still not sure if I’m making my insecurity better or worse! Maybe reading fiction that delves into translators and translation will help clarify things?
Fascinating novel! Thanks for this!
Very interesting theme. Racking my brain. Is there anyone writer who pretends to be the translator of a fiction novel - but in fact is the author under a pseudonym? Don't know really. Think I have to do it myself.
Not books, but a couple of movies come to mind. Charade with Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant, in which Audrey is a UN translator, and The Interpreter with Nicole Kidman. In the former, the role is only incidental to the storyline.