Bellos and Steiner

Bellos’s reading was very interesting and I was able to relate to his points. He talked about the importance of leaving the essence of the original version when translating with an example of a french book. Because if the translator translates everything into English, eliminating all the elements of french, the translated version will just be an ordinary English book. I was able to relate a lot with this reading because when I did homework and translated Japanese into English, I was usually on the side where I want to keep the Japanese culture element as much as possible. For instance, I used the word Oseibo instead of saying gifts or other similar words in English when translating Haruki Murakami’s Korokke. There are many different styles and ways of translating the same piece, but personally, I like using the original phrases in the original language when possible. It is also important that we try to convey the exact message of the original version when translating, however, I believe that if there are certain phrases and words that add some elements of the culture of the original version, I believe that we should keep the original language to remind readers that the setting is in the foreign country. In addition, I believe that translators should not interpret too far and create their new version, which could be better than the original. Because this means that the translator is not being faithful to the original version. Steiner mentioned the problem where the mirror will not only reflect but also generate light and I believe that translated work should just be a mirror and not generate light. 

Mitsy