Translation as a Practice of Acceptance - Asymptote
asymptotejournal.com
Translation as a Practice of Acceptance - Asymptote
Translating means to give the truest possible account of the original work, using different words – it does not mean the freedom to make something fit. As well, the mere copying of quotes almost always changes their meaning by stripping them out of context, even though the words aren’t changed. This is a common beginner mistake, which can only lead
... See moreTranslation is the sum of its choices, choices that are more or less persuasive, more or less justifiable, but always subjective.
“As a writer, I can be bad, but I can’t be wrong. A translator can be good, but can never be right.”
A translator was lucky if half the texts he produced were actually used by practitioners, much less kept in circulation.
Languages change and evolve organically. But it is perhaps paradoxically necessarily that languages must remain mostly unchanging — mostly common between their speakers — such that change can be recognized and contextualized, rather than simply disorienting.