Copeland and Round-table Discussion

A topic that interested me while reading both articles was the idea of marketing translations. In the round-table discussion, the translators talked about bowdlerization and whether they should keep the erotic theme or not. Copeland also mentioned how the editors eliminated certain characters and themes since they thought it would be too confusing to the American readers. It was interesting how publishers achieve a balance between keeping the original and targeting the audience. The articles also mention the idea that there are untranslatable elements and how we should deal with them. Nathan posed an interesting question when they talked about making changes in the text: are we changing substance or are we going after fidelity along another route? On the other hand, Copeland talked about how translators can be truer to the text by creating an equivalent experience in the foreign language. These readings remind me how hard it is to make choices during translating, and there are usually no correct answers. The problem then, is how we can be loyal to the text. I think we do need to try to translate the untranslatable by creating a similar feeling of the content, which is, in my opinion, the way to be loyal to the author.

Iris