Steiner and Bellos

The Steiner reading was very interesting and some things especially stood out including this quote, "No language, no traditional symbolic set or cultural ensemble imports without risk of being transformed." Steiner leaves a lot of room for interpretation for this and he gives quite a few examples of what happens when they are transformed. I was especially shocked that there are translations that have replaced the originals because of their own literary acclaim. I had actually never heard about this before so I am really interested in learning more about it. A metaphor he also uses is that about a mirror that not only reflects but also generates light. I think this is a valid metaphor and it makes a lot of sense but again, it is down to the amount of effort that someone makes in understanding the imported culture. If someone wanted to understand it without it being transformed or tainted, then they would make the effort to research and learn everything about it. So I feel like it is not so much a "risk" but rather a type of unspoken acceptance. 

Bellos talks about the interesting concept of leaving some foreign utterances as they are in translated works so that it retains some of its "foreignness" and that people don't forget that they are reading a translation from another language. This reminded me of what we talked about in class with the tree (whether to leave it in Romaji, use its biological name, or just leave it as big tree). I think depending on how important it is to the work (if it adds to context, plot, or characteristics etc.), I think it is almost necessary to include those, however, for this to work you would definitely need some type of footnote that explains throughout where it depends on the length of the utterance. I finished reading "Lolita" recently and there were lots of short paragraphs in different languages which since I wasn't that dedicated to the book, I just skipped through because there were no footnotes. I think this is definitely different from if it is one or two foreign words that recur, because I immediately gave up upon seeing the length of the foreign passage and the lack of footnotes/explanations. 

Celine