Translating myself #20: What is translation for?
For Dulce, who started this
"Without translation, I would be limited to the borders of my own country. The translator is my most important ally. He introduces me to the world."
Italo Calvino, Italian novelist
Hello.
This is the last in my series of newsletters. I am incredibly grateful to you for reading them and for sharing some of your own thoughts. Knowing that there were interested readers "out there" has kept me going over the past month.
The idea for the pop-up newsletters came from writer and mentor John-Paul Flintoff, who challenged me and others to write on a daily basis, for a limited period of time, about something we were passionate about.
Fellow newsletter writers explored topics such as famous speeches in history, mindful photography and language teaching. I wanted to share my excitement about the launch of my translation of Dulce Maria Cardoso's Violeta Among the Stars -- adding some personal reflections on translation as I went along.
In case you missed any of the posts, or would like to re-visit them, you can find them archived here. It's been fun to make time to think about questions that interest me. It has been particularly encouraging to connect with a small but diverse community of friendly readers who share my interests. Thank you.
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The value of literary translation is -- I hope you will agree -- unquestionable. It is not an overstatement to say that the history of the world's civilisations has depended on the transmission and translation (accurate or not) of knowledge in all its forms -- including storytelling.
"Translators are the shadow heroes of literature," says Paul Auster (American novelist, and himself a translator from French), "the often forgotten instruments that make it possible for different cultures to talk to one another, who have enabled us to understand that we all, from every part of the world, live in one world."
In her excellent (if occasionally angry) book, Why Translation Matters, Edith Grossman writes:
"Translation always helps us to know, to see from a different angle, to attribute new value to what once may have been unfamiliar. As nations and as individuals, we have critical need for this kind of understadning and insight. The alternative is unthinkable."
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I began my own reflections by examining what drove me to translate, and what has kept me going as a translator. The question for me is no longer "Does translation matter?", but "Why do I translate?" As translation is not (for now, at least) my main source of income -- why bother?
I am an avid reader who lives in-between languages. I am also a writer who lives in-between languages.
Translation is, for me, an act of love.
I translate because translation allows me to share my enthusiasm for treasures discovered in one language but not yet available in another.
I translate because translation allows me to converse -- even if only through a close reading of their books -- with authors I admire and learn from.
I translate because translation satisfies a personal need for self-expression, and stimulates my curiosity.
I translate because translation allows me to pour into a piece of work the different parts -- linguistic, cultural, emotional, intellectual -- that comprise my identity.
I translate because translation is both a cure for wanderlust, and an antidote to homesickness.
Thank you, once again, for reading.