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49: How translators approach a text
🕑 Added 2020-10-15 23:42:35 +0000 UTCBefore even starting to translate a work, a translator needs to make several important macro-level decisions, such as whether to more closely follow the literal structure of the text or to adapt more freely, especially if the original text does things that are unfamiliar to readers in the destination language but would be familiar to readers in the original language.
In this episode of Lingthusiasm, your hosts Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne get enthusiastic about the relationship of the translator and the text. We talk about the new, updated translation of Beowulf by Maria Dahvana Headley (affectionately known as the “bro” translation), reading the Tale of Genji in multiple translations, translating conlangs in fiction, and mistranslation on the Scots Wikipedia.
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For links mentioned in this episode: https://lingthusiasm.com/post/632086691477323776/lingthusiasm-episode-49-how-translators-approach
Comments
By the way sorry if this comment shows up twice for you it disappeared for some reason the first time I posted it.
I don’t know if you’ve already heard about this, but I thought it might be interesting to you guys. About a month ago on TikTok there was this trend that was “pov (point of view) you sit next to the mean/popular girl in class” and the idea was that girls would translate basically the same script into their language in a way that sounded cool. Here are a few of them: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMJuQ3uWC/ https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMJuQ7dYY/ https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMJuCJqmg/ and this one girl did a Middle English one: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMJuCe428/
