Hi Trina, as someone who speaks multiple languages and who loves reading fiction and poetry in translation, I really appreciated your reflections on the act and art of translation! I found the English translation of Tagore's poem that you mentioned pretty shocking in its complete divergence from the essence of the original poem. I feel like what I value most about translations are those that become a bridge for connecting two worlds, as you mention, and also in a way that retains the emotional truth and essence of the original, even if the words and facts may differ.
Reading your piece made me think about Jhumpa Lahiri's thoughts on translation, as a Bengali-British-American writer who writes in her non-native Italian and has also translated her own writing from Italian to English - she describes translation as "an act of radical change, an act of reshaping and reforming a text, and in some sense it becomes unrecognizable from what it was once, though its essence remains the same". Thank you for this piece, and all the room for further reflection it's opened up!
p.s. also I had to sign up for your substack, seeing the dedication to tangerine lovers and those who cry in the shower (I literally just wrote about this in my latest piece!) - looking forward to reading your other writing! 😊
thank you so much for your warm response, it means the world to me. i just read your latest piece and it was absolutely delightful. i actually just picked up one of jhumpa lahiri’s books for the first time, and i had no idea that she works so much in translations. can’t wait to read more of your work!!
Oh wow! I’m curious as to which book you’re reading? The book that introduced me to Jhumpa’s writing was Whereabouts, which is the one she wrote in Italian first and then translated herself into English. Thank you so much for reading my piece too and for your kind words! I’m excited to read your work and poetry too - I’ve saved your latest piece on TikTok and Instapoetry to read! 😊
I'm currently drafting an article on translation too! You have some really good insights here, though, and I agree with your point about loss. I don't think a translation can ever convey meaning in the same way as the original, not least because vocabulary and phrasing are fundamentally different between languages.
But there's a cultural element here too. If you're reading an ancient poem, fluency in the original language certainly helps, but an understanding of the society in which that poem was produced is irrecoverable.
What I'm trying to say is, there's always a degree of separation between the poet & their intended meaning, and the poem & its reader. This can be dangerous, sure (eg the way in which Christians understand the Bible is pretty far removed from its "reality"), but I don't think translation is a harmful tool in and of itself. It they can help spread ideas and beautiful language throughout time and space, and finding some common ground in our shared human experiences is what life is all about.
Great minds think alike :) You have such a thoughtful perspective! You're right about the cultural layers we might miss and how they often get lost in translation. Can't wait to read your essay!!
This is so interesting and so much of it resonated with me. I constantly feel like my Arabic is insufficient when I'm reading Quran or making dua, but then I look at my kids, a generation after me in the Egypt/Canada immigration food chain, and I know that they understand much less of it. I get sad for them sometimes if I read something that sounds so beautiful in Arabic, and then I read the translation and it just sounds dull. I really wanted them to feel that beauty...
Where in Canada are you, if I may ask? I'm in Ottawa...
Great read. I think about how much not fluently knowing Haitian Creole impacts how Haitian my son gets to be. I know culture is more than just language but there is a beauty in being able to call a word in a different tongue that only exists in that language. I got a little sad when j saw the bank resource and Haitian Creole wasn’t there. Thank you for this read!
I think about that all the time too, how not speaking Bengali fluently might affect my children’s cultural identity. I feel better knowing that it’s not just me with that concern. Thank you for your response!
This is so thought provoking. It reminds me of the inevitable dismay when I learn a new language, that being in every day conversation is not the same as being in conversation with art in that language.
such good food for thought. my mom and dad speak bangla to me and sometimes, when i have to translate the words to my american wife, it loses the meaning. when my mom says lovingly "khan da sera dimu!" and I translate it "I'm going to rip your ear off!", my wife looks at me curiously...
Trina, this resonated with me in so many ways. How many times have I stood in a grocery store or a shop in Portugal feeling a deep longing and loneliness, and hungry for home and a human connection to it. And how many times has my husband said to me that he didn’t know how to translate what he felt so deeply from Portuguese to English. Or how there are little Arabic phrases that I grew up with in our home that I cannot explain well to him. Thank you for this thoughtful writing. 💛
Poets perhaps are the closest we have to non-violent translations. Sometimes we get close but the picture has to be painted with more layers than just a word.
This was so moving to read. Thank you. My mother's mother tongue was Urdu but she spoke it less and less the older she got and not at all to us as kids. I feel so cut off from that side of my cultural heritage as a result. Music offers me a connection though - a way to feel the recognition through my body rather than through my mind.
Maybe Tagore is not entirely wrong, a translation is kind of an act of re-creation. Instead of seeing it being destroyed or imitated, it is being recreated in another form or language. If we are lucky, it is conveying as close as possible to what the original intended.
I for one am thankful for translations, how else can I read outside of English? Or to a very lesser extent in German or Malay?
Hi Trina, as someone who speaks multiple languages and who loves reading fiction and poetry in translation, I really appreciated your reflections on the act and art of translation! I found the English translation of Tagore's poem that you mentioned pretty shocking in its complete divergence from the essence of the original poem. I feel like what I value most about translations are those that become a bridge for connecting two worlds, as you mention, and also in a way that retains the emotional truth and essence of the original, even if the words and facts may differ.
Reading your piece made me think about Jhumpa Lahiri's thoughts on translation, as a Bengali-British-American writer who writes in her non-native Italian and has also translated her own writing from Italian to English - she describes translation as "an act of radical change, an act of reshaping and reforming a text, and in some sense it becomes unrecognizable from what it was once, though its essence remains the same". Thank you for this piece, and all the room for further reflection it's opened up!
p.s. also I had to sign up for your substack, seeing the dedication to tangerine lovers and those who cry in the shower (I literally just wrote about this in my latest piece!) - looking forward to reading your other writing! 😊
thank you so much for your warm response, it means the world to me. i just read your latest piece and it was absolutely delightful. i actually just picked up one of jhumpa lahiri’s books for the first time, and i had no idea that she works so much in translations. can’t wait to read more of your work!!
Oh wow! I’m curious as to which book you’re reading? The book that introduced me to Jhumpa’s writing was Whereabouts, which is the one she wrote in Italian first and then translated herself into English. Thank you so much for reading my piece too and for your kind words! I’m excited to read your work and poetry too - I’ve saved your latest piece on TikTok and Instapoetry to read! 😊
i'm also reading Whereabouts! i had no idea it was written in Italian first, but i'll be looking at it through new eyes now <3
So interesting to know we both opened the same door to Jhumpa's writing, through Whereabouts! :) Hope you enjoy it :<3
I'm currently drafting an article on translation too! You have some really good insights here, though, and I agree with your point about loss. I don't think a translation can ever convey meaning in the same way as the original, not least because vocabulary and phrasing are fundamentally different between languages.
But there's a cultural element here too. If you're reading an ancient poem, fluency in the original language certainly helps, but an understanding of the society in which that poem was produced is irrecoverable.
What I'm trying to say is, there's always a degree of separation between the poet & their intended meaning, and the poem & its reader. This can be dangerous, sure (eg the way in which Christians understand the Bible is pretty far removed from its "reality"), but I don't think translation is a harmful tool in and of itself. It they can help spread ideas and beautiful language throughout time and space, and finding some common ground in our shared human experiences is what life is all about.
Great minds think alike :) You have such a thoughtful perspective! You're right about the cultural layers we might miss and how they often get lost in translation. Can't wait to read your essay!!
This is so interesting and so much of it resonated with me. I constantly feel like my Arabic is insufficient when I'm reading Quran or making dua, but then I look at my kids, a generation after me in the Egypt/Canada immigration food chain, and I know that they understand much less of it. I get sad for them sometimes if I read something that sounds so beautiful in Arabic, and then I read the translation and it just sounds dull. I really wanted them to feel that beauty...
Where in Canada are you, if I may ask? I'm in Ottawa...
I feel this so heavily. I’m further South, closer to Toronto :)
I have a sister in London, Ontario. And in laws in the GTA…
Small world!
Great read. I think about how much not fluently knowing Haitian Creole impacts how Haitian my son gets to be. I know culture is more than just language but there is a beauty in being able to call a word in a different tongue that only exists in that language. I got a little sad when j saw the bank resource and Haitian Creole wasn’t there. Thank you for this read!
I think about that all the time too, how not speaking Bengali fluently might affect my children’s cultural identity. I feel better knowing that it’s not just me with that concern. Thank you for your response!
I've seldom consider the impact of translation. When I do, I think in terms of English to some other language. Your piece got me thinking.
I do adore your conclusion that it's better to have a translation than to never experience the work at all.
In a world when we seamlessly communicate across borders, it's helpful to know another's art so that we have context for their lives.
Translation helps with that.
This is so thought provoking. It reminds me of the inevitable dismay when I learn a new language, that being in every day conversation is not the same as being in conversation with art in that language.
such good food for thought. my mom and dad speak bangla to me and sometimes, when i have to translate the words to my american wife, it loses the meaning. when my mom says lovingly "khan da sera dimu!" and I translate it "I'm going to rip your ear off!", my wife looks at me curiously...
Trina, this resonated with me in so many ways. How many times have I stood in a grocery store or a shop in Portugal feeling a deep longing and loneliness, and hungry for home and a human connection to it. And how many times has my husband said to me that he didn’t know how to translate what he felt so deeply from Portuguese to English. Or how there are little Arabic phrases that I grew up with in our home that I cannot explain well to him. Thank you for this thoughtful writing. 💛
Poets perhaps are the closest we have to non-violent translations. Sometimes we get close but the picture has to be painted with more layers than just a word.
This was so moving to read. Thank you. My mother's mother tongue was Urdu but she spoke it less and less the older she got and not at all to us as kids. I feel so cut off from that side of my cultural heritage as a result. Music offers me a connection though - a way to feel the recognition through my body rather than through my mind.
Maybe Tagore is not entirely wrong, a translation is kind of an act of re-creation. Instead of seeing it being destroyed or imitated, it is being recreated in another form or language. If we are lucky, it is conveying as close as possible to what the original intended.
I for one am thankful for translations, how else can I read outside of English? Or to a very lesser extent in German or Malay?