Day 13
Tues. Oct. 11
Share details from classmates’ translations of Eileen Chang and E.B. White
Discussion of “foreignization” and “domestication”
Homework:
Final project due date: Please note that the due date for both your translation and your translator’s note is midnight Sunday October 16 (China time).
➤ Keep working on your final project
If you haven’t yet, make sure to read my handout with important reminders about the final project.
Please remember that if you want my feedback on a draft, we need to make an appointment to meet on Zoom, and it’s best not to wait till the last minute — my appointment slots fill up!
➤ (Optional: peer feedback)
If submitted a draft for peer feedback, I will pair you with another group or individual to read one another’s work. Please read your classmate(s)’ manuscript and give them feedback in whatever way you or they think would be helpful.
I recommend that the reader be someone whose native language is the target language of the translation (the language you’re translating into) and that they not read the original — just read the translation and mark places that are confusing or strange or difficult to understand.
➤ Read classmates’ translations of Lu xun and Christian wiman
Read your classmates’ translations of these poems, focusing on the translations into your own native language.
Come ready to share one sentence or line that you think does a wonderful job capturing an image or a metaphor (or both).
Please also come ready to share:
one translation that you think does an excellent job capturing the most basic, literal meaning of the text
one translation that you find most evocative — the one that most strongly hints or implying something symbolic or metaphorical
➤ Supplementary reading
For an interesting discussion relevant to politics and prestige and how they relate to the ideas of “domestication” and “foreignization",” I recommend Chapter 15 of Is That a Fish in Your Ear? (titled “Bibles and Bananas”).
For a hilarious, eloquent, and very lengthy discussion of the life of a professional translator who must regularly work with texts whose value she questions, I recommend “On Translating Garbage” by Lina Mounzer.
