Riggs has a unique way of viewing translation, if the first sentence of the article is anything to go off of. She describes the translation as if it was alive, such as talking about translation having a “soul” and being reincarnated, and then later about reworking the “body” with its meat and bones. It’s certainly an interesting visual.
Something that Riggs talks about that I don’t think gets acknowledged as much as it should is how exhausting translation can be. On the outside, it may seem simple: just match a word with the other language’s equivalent. But a lot of cultural divides, language barriers, the need to do research in advance, and the choices to make about wording and preservation of the original text makes translating a much more complicated matter than it initially looks. A translator has to know the contents of what they’re translating; they have to immerse themselves in it, and sometimes, as Riggs says, put themselves in the author’s shoes and follow the author’s thought process.
The ending of the article gives some food for thought. No translator can translate 100% faithfully, so the only way to truly understand the original work is to learn the language and culture itself. Not everyone has the time or luxury to do such, so the best we can rely on is translations.
Alex
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