Day 5
Tues. Sept. 6
Share Challenge 1 translation drafts
Homework:
➤ Read texts of other two challenges
Read the excerpts from Dandelion Wine and the William Deresiewicz articles that we will be looking at next class. Familiarize yourself with both the English original and your classmates’ Chinese translation.
Come ready to share one observation about either the original or the translation that you think is significant.
➤ Begin working on your translator’s note
Please don’t forget that your translator’s note (mini reflection essay) will be due this Friday at midnight China time.
I’d suggest you begin writing, or at least thinking about what you’ll write. Here is your prompt:
In 500-600 words, please describe one especially difficult or important aspect of the text your group translated, and tell me how your translation grappled with the challenges posed by that particular aspect of the text.
Think of this as a way to document your thought process as a translator, both for me and for yourself. Please respect the word limit (this is different from my rules in other classes regarding word limits). Your style can be formal or colloquial, serious or playful, analytical or narrative—it’s up to you. Regardless, focusing on one issue and using specific examples from the text will be key to doing this well.
For a couple examples of translator’s notes that might inspire you, you could read this 1000-word essay and this 400-word essay, both of which are translator’s notes that I wrote to accompany translations I published of poetry by Ouyang Jianghe.
➤ Supplementary reading
Now would be a good time to read the chapter “译事三难”的迷思 in 王岫庐's 《翻译之镜》, which tells the origin story of the famous idea of 信、达、雅 -- one of the most oft-repeated ideas in Chinese culture about what constitutes a good translation. Note that 王岫庐 will join us next class as a guest so you will get to meet the author!
