Now In English! Modern Japanese Literature

Title: Modern Japanese Literature: From 1868 to the Present Day

Author: Various

Translators: Sam Houston Brock, Robert H. Brower, Harold G. Henderson, Howard Hibbon, Glenn Hughes, Baroness Shidzut Ishimoto, Yozan T. Iwasaki, Donald Keene, Ivan Morris, W.H.H. Norman, Shio Sakanishi, G.W. Sargent, Edward Seidensticker, Burton Watson, and Meredith Weatherby. 

Editor: Donald Keene

Word Specificity vs. Word Choice

Analysing word choice is one of the most difficult aspects of writing - either in revising your own
work or in interpreting someone else's. Usually you might end up cutting down your word count, removing a cliché or two and then moving on to the next article. But rather an word choice, I've come to adopt the phrase "word specificity".

But what is the difference between the two?

Now In English! "The Rehearsal of Misunderstanding"

Title: The Rehearsal of Misunderstandings: Three Collections by Contemporary Greek Women Poets

Original Authors: Rhea Galanaki, Jenny Mastoraki, Maria Laina.

Translator: Karen Van Dyck

On April 27, 1967, a group of colonels in Greece took control of the government and installed a dictatorship that would last until 1974. During this period free expression was harshly surpressed. That did not, however, stop writers and artists from speaking out and practising their craft. And this collection of Greek poetry edited and translated by Karen Van Dyck's showcases women's poetry during the Junta.

Four Myths About Translated Scripture

Still a powerful player in the world at large, religion - and therefore religious texts - takes on quite a bit of scrutiny. And it should, as a sphere of influence. But regardless of whether it affects the globe or the individual, religion (at least in the mainstream) tends to revolve around sacred texts. 

Translated books - even scriptures - are far
more complicated than you think!

Among the Abrahamic religions, we have the Torah, the Bible, the Qu'ran. Hinduism has an even wider variety, among the most important are the Vedas and the Bhagavad Gita (one book out of the Mahabharata). Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Shinto - you'll find a central text, perhaps among many others, within each of these sects.

However, it's important to remember that religious scriptures must often be translated in order to be understood - especially for those with an ancient origin. Most people understand the necessity of this - after all, not everyone can understand ancient Greek or Aramaic, Arabic or Sanskrit. Still, it's not something we often think about.

But can you really just pull a Bible from the bookshelf and read it?

My answer certainly shouldn't surprise you, given my past articles. The fact is this: Any translated text contains more context, more culture, and more history than we are aware of as the recipient. A religious text is no different. If the stories read "easy", it's because the translator worked hard to make it so. But don't get comfortable and let yourself be slipped up by these myths:

Now In English! "Memory In The Flesh" by Ahlam Mosteghanemi

Title: Memory In The Flesh/Bridges of Constantine

Author: Ahlam Mosteghanemi

Translator: Baria Ahmar Sreih / Raphael Cohen, Revised Translation: Peter Clark

Original Language: Arabic

There are some novels that contain a plot so marvelous that you can't help but read on. And there are others that lead you 262 pages deep from the poetry alone. I've heard that Persian may be considered the poetic language of Southwest Asia and Northern Africa, but it certainly has its contenders.

NIE! "Nothing More To Lose" by Najwan Darwish

Title: Nothing More To Lose
Author: Najwan Darwish

Translator: Kareem James Abu-Zeid 

Short-Form: Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore is far more well-known as a Bengali writer (among other things) than as a translator. And shouldn't he be? He was the first non-European to receive a Nobel Prize for Literature. In addition to literature, he was skilled and insanely influential to Bengali music and art. As an Indian nationalist, you'll find his compositions as national anthems.

But resources on his views of translation are fairly scarce. He did, however, write to the Spanish translator Joan Mascaró on his translation of the  Upanishads, a collection of Hindu philosophical texts.

NIE! "Maria Nephele" by Odysseus Elytis

Title: Maria Nephele: A Poem In Two Voices

Author: Odysseus Elytis

Translator: Athan Anagnostopoulos

While, once again, perusing the stacks at the UT Knoxville library, I cam across a section reserved for Modern Greek, among which the popular poet Odysseus Elytis appeared to have a nearly a full shelf. He did, after all, win the Nobel Prize for literature in 1979. Although he is well known for his work Axion Esti,I chose to read Maria Nephele due to its fascinating structure. And it certainly wasn’t disappointing.

Short Form: Gayatri Spiyak

Gayatri Spiyak’s work on post colonialism and feminism in literature has made a profound impact on the interpretation of Third World literature. You may, in fact, remember her name from my post on Post-Colonialism and the Reader. Spiyak grew up and studied in Calcutta, before obtaining her PhD in Comparative Literature from Cornell. She founded the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society at Columbia University, where she is a professor. In addition, she was the first woman of color to occupy the highest faculty position in the entire history of the university.While Spiyak’s primary focus is not translation, the subject cannot be avoided in her field. And while Spiyak’s work centers on feminism, it is important to note that there is no reason her approach to translation can be applied across the board. The primary text I am using for this summary comes from her article, “The Politics of Translation”.

Short-Form: Jorge Luis Borges

“There are not, in the whole vast library, true identical books…everything is there…a version of each book in all languages, the interpolation of every book in all books.” – “Library of Babel” 75 

The Translator

The Argentinian writer, translator and essayist Jorge Luis Borges may be better known as the translator of Garcia Marquez’s One-Hundred Years of Solitude. His work consists of puzzles, falsifications, religion, mirrors, and libraries. And as amazing as his fiction is (I’ll get to that in another blog post), it’s also interesting to interpret his ideas about translation.

Now In English! Al-Ghazali's “The Beginning of Guidance”

 “Woe to the ignorant one, because he did not seek knowledge, and woe a thousand times to the knowledgeable one who did not act upon his knowledge.”  20, The Beginning of Guidance

Due to the continuing conflict in Southwest Asia, the abuse of Islamic tenants by multiple terrorist organizations, and the general lack of understanding of Islam in the USA, today I will discuss a very different kind of book. Instead of fiction, I'd like to describe and suggest a book that you won't find in many debates about radical Islam, a book that supplements the Qu'ran: The Beginning of Guidance by Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali.

Imam Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali (c. 1058–1111), one of the most prominent Islamic theologians in history, penned to one of his students a methodological way to practice God-Consciousness. Translated by Mashhad Al-Allaf, The Beginning of Guidance offers rich advice to the layperson. Although it was originally geared to students of the Qu'ran, the advice given in this work can, at some level, be found across faiths, as well as among atheists and agnostics. 

Cover of The Beginning of Guidance
by Al-Ghazali

This edition in particular is extremely useful for many readers. First, the text itself is easy to read. It includes a translator’s preface, a transcription key, transliterations of the informal prayers (Du'a), and other notes. This makes it easier, especially for those who may be unfamiliar with Islam, to get an idea of the context and the sounds of prayers in Arabic. Second, the translation faces the original Arabic, with vowel marks. For the student of Arabic, this may be an excellent study material – for language as well as religion.

The work itself is divided into three sections – “On Obedience”, “On Refraining from Disobedience”, and “The Etiquette of Companionship with the Creator and with Creation”. I would describe it thus: the first section is about worship, the second on avoiding sin/negative behavior, and the third on how to interact with others. No section is more useful than the other, and I suggest rereading the entire book (some 70 pages for English-only text) to better see the cohesiveness of each section. While the wording is simple, the concepts are profound; therefore, those who wish to glean more should not only reread it but also read it slowly.

Those who come from the Abrahamic faiths, in particular the more orthodox variations, may be the most interested in The Beginning of Guidance. In Al-Ghazali’s work I was reminded of my time in Catholic school, for the most part because of the level or reverence and discipline Al-Ghazali shows through his writing.

In all honesty, it is impossible to better explain or summarize The Beginning of Guidance in a blog post. There is a great risk that I may mangle the original meaning. For anyone interested in Islam, or who wants to go beyond reading the Qu'ran and a 101 book, The Beginning of Guidance should definitely be on your list. Whether you decide to read it to seek out religion, philosophy, or just out of curiosity, it won't disappoint you!

Missed a NIE! Review? Check out last month's Balika Badhu: a Bengali Anthology

Short-Form: Walter Benjamin's "The Task of the Translator"

The philosopher Walter Bendix Schoenflies Benjamin was born on July 15, 1892 to an assimilated Jewish family in Berlin. While a bulk of his writings is directed towards exploring history and art, he also wrote about translation.

“The Task of the Translator” is dense, packed full of complex theory. It wouldn't be difficult write a dissertation based on one or two lines of the text.

This, however, will not be a dissertation. Instead, I’ll summarize and try to explain the most basic elements of Benjamin’s theory. Granted, it's nearly impossible, and it would be very easy to write a thesis on one or two lines from this article. Keeping that in mind, let's dive into the basics...

Thoughts for the Post-Colonial Reader

“The close relationship between colonization and translation has come under scrutiny; we can now perceive the extent to which translation was for centuries a one-way process, with texts being translated into European languages for European consumption, rather than as part of a reciprocal process of exchange.” – from Post-colonial Translation by Susan Basset & Harish Trivedi

Post-Colonialism has long since wedged itself into the cultural limelight, notably in the realm of pop culture and cultural appropriation. Translation and foreign literature has not escaped its purview, and while many readers may shirk away for one reason or another – to political, too liberal – it’s an important factor to think about. For, to some degree, colonialism has chosen and reinforced what we read.

However, now foreign novels are not translated into English nearly enough, meaning that we know less about the world and its peoples than we did before. While novels, movies, advertisements are translated out of English and into a multitude of other languages; the international novel market in the United States is still relatively small. The US has largely monopolized its culture through exporting it.

So what can we understand that’s useful for us readers about the translation and post-colonialism?

Now In English! Review of "Broken Glass Park"

 

"Sometimes I think I'm the only one in our neighborhood with any worthwhile dreams. I have two...I want to kill Vadim. And I want to write a book about my mother." - Alina Bronsky, Broken Glass Park

Originally written in German by the Russian-German writer Alina Bronsky, and translated by Tim Mohr, Broken Glass Park (German Title: Scherbenpark) reveals itself to be a young adult novel on the axis of maturity. The opening, seemingly over-dramatic, casts readers into a side of Europe they may not be familiar with – the ghettos.

How To Use Google Translate

Scrambling to finish our Spanish before class starts, scratching our head at a convoluted paragraph-sentence, or even double-checking those multilingual"I love you" posts on Tumblr - we've all been there, hoping that Google Translate (GT) will provide a quick solution.

And it does provide something, but I doubt you could call it a solution.

Google Translate is a tool, not a translator. And in order to learn your language with a machine translation, you have to understand how it works best.

5 Basic Skills For Translation

Transitioning from language learning to translation is difficult - often because it's easy to assume that you've been doing translation in the classroom for years. We all know those short sentence assignments - translate x into y. But textbook exercises exist to help you with grammar and vocabulary application - not actual translation.

After practicing translating for about a year, I've come up with five primary skills that one should consider when going into translation.

How To Decide On A Translation: 5 Steps for Literature Lovers

Summer has finally arrived, and somehow, you've managed to find the time to read Anna Karenina. Or maybe it's Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse or Candide by Voltaire. Whatever you're reading, it the original was written in a tongue you don't understand. And anything famous, anything translated, must have the trait of being universally understood, right? Any translation should do if that's the case.

But is it?

What is a proposal, anyway?

I imagined a bulk of papers heaped on my desk, books toppling over the purple ottoman like a waterfall over the carpet still not vacuumed. That might have been my junior year, but as I wrap up the details of my senior project proposal, there seems to be glints of wonder abounding in the process.

Academia is an uncertain feeling, but finding knowledge is not. Lately I have spent many nights hauling thick books back to my dorm room under the cloak of evening. By now, I suppose I have  22 books on my shelf - all borrowed, but only half are dedicated to my senior thesis. Despite this gathering of materials, the proposal has yet to be entirely finished, it waits in my documents folder to be finalized.

But what is a proposal? The least romantic thing, the beginning of the end in the case of my undergraduate career. The hardest part was deciding how to bend on one knee and deliver a lean guide to my final two semesters to the director of my department. Will I be reading or producing? Analyzing or recreating? What will it mean? What will it be used for?

Waste is a despicable thing, and this belief no doubt influenced the desire to create. Who said, after all, that the epitome of your college struggle had to be encapsulated in a elongated paper, presented to the world and then locked into a library? Certainly not me.

I've designed, God willing, a creative project. A translation project. An active work that allows me to bend my perception of language, to build upon basic skills, and then discuss via analysis essay the process and meaning behind this. To discover and explain what fascinates me about language, and languages.

Now I am translating a short story from English into German and Russian. Even with only two pages of the German loosely screwed together, I can see errors and conflicts in syntax. Verbs. We use smoldering for embers, but is German is it used more idiomatically for love than in English? I've used this adjective twice - does it mean the same thing the third time? Must it be generalized or specialized?

And of course, there is the hope that my language skills will improve. That my German will blossom into a upper B2 butterfly, and my Russian - well, it will be conversational, at least.

But where will all this end up? Where will this proposal take me? Will it leave me at the alter? Well, I guess we'll find out at the defense. Until then the invitations - tidbits and nibblets about translation and morphology to come.