Translation in Spirit: A Reaction to Umberto Eco by Liliana Leuzzi
Liliana’s reaction to Umberto Eco in Experiences in Translation was very similar to what I thought myself. Liliana pointed out what Eco said about communicative translation and how it can lead the loss of faithfulness in the original text, and this is a very important observation. If a translator changes the text around too much, it can result in a different meaning for the new translation. Liliana also gave a great example, which was the saying, “she has a bun in the oven”, meaning a woman is pregnant (besides the literal meaning). If this was used to translate “lei ha un panino in forno”,which simply means that bread is cooking in the oven, it would add a completely different meaning to the text. Another point that was made that i agreed on was the importance of avoiding adding bias to the text, because this also can alter the meaning significantly. An example of this would be to change a word that doesn’t have a similar enough meaning to use to accurately translate.
Reaction to “Translation as a Practice Appearance” by Iliana R. Petrillo
Iliana discussed Anita Raja’s statement that there is always an inequality between the source language and the target language, because the source text will always have a deeper meaning compared to the target text, so in order to translate well, it is necessary for the translator to have a deep understanding of the culture of the source language. Iliana agreed with this statement because it if a translator does not fully understand the original text, then it is impossible to accurately translate it to another language. This is a very important point that Iliana made in regards to translating. A translator can’t only know a small amount about a culture and it’s language, because there would be many mistakes made. If a word has multiple meanings, a translator might take the wrong meaning and thus create a whole new meaning to the translation. Iliana made another interesting point, this one regarding Anita Raja’s comment that there are no limitations to what a translator can translate accurately. Iliana said that she believes there are certain limitations to what can be translated between certain languages, and this is something that I agree with as well. There are many aspects of many different cultures that would not be understood in a translation, because it is so foreign to the audience. Yes, it can literally be translated, but the idea won’t carry on to the target text because the audience will not understand it.
Understanding Canto 5 Through Divergent Translations by Greer Egan
I agree with Greer that Canto 5 is an exceptionally hard text to translate because of the word choice, verse structure, and sentence structure that Dante used, which results in the translator having to lose certain aspects of the text in their translation. It is nearly impossible to keep the rhyme scheme and also the exact translation of a word, so words and phrases often need to be changed. Greer made an example of how two very different translations of Canto 5 can be equally as accurate. She pointed out that in Bannerman’s text, the translation uses more dignified and proper words, meanwhile Norton’s word choice is much more simple and elementary in comparison.