Reading Cathy Hirano's "Eight Ways to Say You" made me realize just how much thought and depth goes into translating even a few sentences in a book. Having to balance between preserving the original storytelling and yet also appealing to the English audience is a tough act. I have newfound respect for translators as I now know that it is not simply just exchanging words to a different language.
I also resonated with the part where she says that she has to have a level of arrogance when translating, but also have enough humility to not completely change the meaning of the story. Having that arrogance allows you to be confident in the words that you choose and the content that you are rewriting, and without that, you'll be left behind with all the uncertainty of whether what you're translating is perfect or not.
I was also impressed to see how she fit explanations of concepts unfamiliar to Americans in a way that flows naturally with the story. I was also thinking about how one would go about doing this without the information being fed sounding so jarring and out of place, so it was really cool to actually see an example of that being done, and having a better idea of how to approach it if I ever needed to.
Afiq
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