Terry and Riggs

In Terry's reading, he discusses a lot about how difficult it is to stay faithful to the original while translating. There were many points that Terry went over that explains the difficulty in translating faithfully: stating the obvious, repetition, rhetorical questions, etc. He talks extensively about how translating these topics into English would basically turn an English reader off from reading. To which I actually agree. Something that I noticed when I'm translating is that I like staying faithful to the original. Naively so. But when I see these arguments against it, I just can't seem to disagree with them. I know it is true. I know that these things would make the translations awkward and just down right terrible to read. But I still like to translate literally. It just feels like I'm doing a disservice to author when I remove something from the original to translate. Maybe it is something I should fix going onwards.

In Rigg's reading, she talks about the techniques she uses to translate different parts of a text: the title, lead paragraph, etc. I feel like most of the points she talks about we haven't really had a chance to do yet. We haven't had to make a title or make a lead paragraph of a translation yet, or at least in the traditional sense. But the points she makes could be relevant to our next translation text, the newspaper article? Something else she talks about is the methodology of translating a piece. Translating as you read along or translate after you have finished and understood everything. I don't think you should translate as you read along because I feel like you just don't understand the original text yet. The only advantage I see in translating as you read is that you digest the text as a reader and it allows for a more reader-like translation? I believe that you should have finished the text first and understand it before translating it. If you don't, why are you translating the text? If I was a translator and wanted to translate something, it would be something I really wanted to translate because the text really interested me or I want other people to also read it. I wouldn't be translating something I am reading for the first time. 

 

Brian