Hibbett and Nathan Reading

     The Hibbett reading introduced me to Tanizaki. I had never heard of him until now, and I am kind of interested in reading a translated version of one of his works. In the reading, Hibbett mentions several aspects of translations that he considers as resistances and pleasures. He does not directly list this as a resistance of his, but the problem he had with trying to convey masculine katakana and feminine hiragana in English was an interesting one to me. I suppose that one could just convey the difference using italics or maybe a different font, but the interesting method of figuring this problem out through usage of masculine and feminine tone is more appealing. He stated to find pleasure in beginning and finishing a translation, and I also agree with this statement. Being able to look back on my finished translation is a very nice feeling.

    John Nathan mentions a "strategy of invisibility" in the reading from him. In the same sentence, he also refers to it as a "strategy of fluency." Majority of the readers of a translated piece are expecting it to be able to be read with ease in their language. There may be some in the audience that want the translation to "sound foreign", but I assume that the vast majority simply desire readability and fluency over the foreignness. This sort of domestication of the original text into an English book is interesting to think about since a translator tries to preserve the contents of the original text as best as they can. This effort could be seen as wasted if the translation simply does not read well, resulting in a dissatisfied audience of readers.

June