Carpenter Post

    Carpenter writes a lot about the experiences she had translating various works. In the section titled "Translating the Spirit", the sentence about being able to make the sky purple was really insightful. The comparison of translating to coloring fits really well in my opinion. For the translator, it is not really feasible to change the "picture." As a result, the only thing that the translator is able to really have influence over is the "color." It is up to the translator to decide what color to make the sky, but in the end, the sky would still be the sky. 

    Another topic that Carpenter brought up was translators having to really understand the material. Obviously, the translator should really have at least read the material that they are translating. This is what understanding the material means at face value, but from past readings, there is so much more that the translator as to inquire and learn in order to truly understand what they are translating. For example, it was mentioned in several past readings that the cultural background of a text is important when translating it. Translators are required to know the culture behind the text or else their translation is bound to be missing some elements from the original text.

June