Heaney and Raffel’s translations are both phenomenal works of literature. Heaney, however, concentrates more on how poetic and similar the
In the process of writing, regardless of the form it takes, thesis or narrative for example, the purpose of the piece has several lenses that shape how the reader perceives the material. Of the less important lenses that shape the piece, mood, word choice, and rhetoric are only a few. These elements of the work, while minimal in a relative sense, accomplish the same as other, more important components, they influence how the reader perceives the material, how it is understood. If one is to effectively convey the message of the piece, one must first look at how the any reader perceives any text. This idea of how the reader perceives is a culmination of all the devices employed by the author. The idea is for the author to craft an aggregate
By looking at these texts, we can see that both texts are merely representations fabricated by the composers to persuade their audience on the fidelity of their perspective, thus both texts provide their audience with a provocative
In modern literary interpretation, the correspondence of the authors intention with the meaning of the work, is considered paramount to discerning the ‘true’ literary meaning of a work . E.D. Hirsch a renowned literary critic argues that to correctly interpret a text, the interpret must consider the author and the text’s “inner” and “out horizon”. To discover the inner horizon, the interpreter must look at the culture and background of the work and author so they can understand the logic, belief systems, and historical context that bound the work. The addition of the outer horizon allows the reader to consider the author’s intention in writing the piece. Hirsh establishes that a literary interpretation can be considered the most probable, if the reader considers the plausibility of the interpretation based on the context established from the text’s horizon, coherence .
Translation is the interpretation that moves from an original text to a version mediated and transported by the translator’s experience. For example, the understanding of a book and interpreting the writing in your own words based on what you get out of the text. People can have different interpretations and it all depends on how they take the author’s tone, style, form, sense, etc. The novel, Sings Preceding the End of the World, by Yuri Herrera is a great novel that permits its readers to travel and adventure the feeling of excitement by creating a story in where a young girl crosses borders and speaks different tongues in order to survive in a new world. It’s translator Lisa Dillman made a great job in translating a novel written in Spanish
Throughout history, time has been a contributing factor to the variations in the conversion of literary text. Over the duration of its existence, the small details in writing can be lost in translation overtime, leading to a completely separate version. This is prevalent in Seamus Heaney’s and Burton Raffel’s versions of Beowulf . Both passages revolve around the theme of fate, however, Heyley’s view is centered around christianity, while the interpretation of Raffel’s is focused moreso on personal choices rather than fate alone.
From the first depiction of the subject of The Wanderer, “earth-stepper,” “earth-walker,” and “the Wanderer,” the translators Greg Delanty, E. Talbot Donaldson, and Alfred David differ in their translations (Delanty l. 6, Donaldson 112, David l. 6). These differences build throughout the rest of the poem, eventually leading the audience to arrive at different conclusions based on each translation. By translating the Christian ideas in the poem (God, Earth, human) with distinct word choice, Delanty, Donaldson, and David create translations of The Wanderer that demonstrate the pitfalls of choosing inaccurate language.
The acclaimed play Romeo and Juliet has inspired numerous film and play makers to recreate the love between the main characters. In the 1996 production of Romeo + Juliet, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes, each character is depicted in a much more flamboyant light than in the 1968 version. Despite being based on the same original play, the 28 year difference between the release dates resulted in a significantly changed audience. Similarly, the epic poem Beowulf, originally written in Old English about a hero who defeats a seemingly unassailable, “violent, and cruel” (23) oppressor, has been translated multiple times. Each translation differs due to the intended audience of the translators. The differences in the structure and characterization
According to Jacques Ranciere, Emma’s death was a verdict made by Gustave Flaubert because she was unable to distinguish the practical-mindedness and sentimentality of art, which was the lifestyle she had chosen to live. “Art means distinction to her, it means a certain lifestyle. Art has to permeate all the aspects of existence” (Ranciere 238-239). Emma had sought after the church and religion throughout this novel in seeking spiritual enlightenment. However, the self-integration of religious art and literature in Emma’s life had caused her to condone the benefits she could have received of religion and of the church. “With a mind that was practical in pursuit of its enthusiasms, that had loved the church for its flowers, music for the words of its sentimental songs, and literature for its power to stir the emotions, she rebelled against the mysteries of faith” (Flaubert 36). Emma was unable to discern that her sentimental view on religious arts substituted her spirituality; the inability to separately define the two elements resulted in her downfall and death.
Could the words we easily speak on an everyday basis be more than just letters grouped together? There are almost seven thousand languages spoken in the world, each one with it’s own personality and way of thinking. Lera Boroditsky is a cognitive scientist who studies language. She published an article in the New York Times exposing the business world to her theory of language and how a person can go deeper into the human mind through the everyday words that they speak. In this article “Lost in Translation”, Boroditsky convinces businessmen and women that in every language there is a certain way of thinking. She expresses her opinion by asking questions throughout the article, expressing other professional studies and using a personal experience to persuade the international business world that
Translations of historical text vary depending on the translator, location, and year it was translated. The enjoyable feature of translations is they are all different. Each text has its own unique style and word choice, allowing the audience to get an altered read of the same story or passage. Longfellow (pg 304), Raffel (pg 312), and Heaney (320), all have very different styles of writing and ideas on how Beowulf should be translated. They also each lived in a different century, making the varying language of their interpretations of Beowulf clear.
The most noticeable difference in the two translations is the format of writing. The Fitts and Fitzgerald’s Translation was in a formal poem format whereas the Luci Berkowitz and Theodore F. Brunner’s Translation was in a more informal paragraph. The diction of
The Liberation Madame Bovary Women have always been seen as the inferior gender. When women act out of turn they are considered nontraditional or uncouth. It isn’t until recent where women have stopped worrying about what society thinks of them. The women’s movement in the 1960’s opened the doors for women to get jobs and feel equal and in some ways superior to men. Long before women were burning their bras, long before the women’s suffrage movement, centuries ago in France a man by the name of Gustave Flaubert breathed life by means of pen and paper into a woman who would be seen as a disgrace in her time, but just another celebrity in our present reality.
In the introduction of this story that discusses the numerous translations it has, the line “Will such a text inevitably have to be loose paraphrase or imitation or re-composition because the complex connotations of the original cannot be understood?” really stood out to me. I know this isn’t the main point of the story, but it’s definitely a question I feel is appropriate for stories that are transformed into other forms of media (plays, movies, TV shows, etc) or is translated into other languages. The fact that there are no fewer than eight different translations of this story definitely emphasizes the idea that some of the emotional context may be lost in some versions. It was definitely intriguing to see the common denominators between the numerous versions, and the fact that there are so many, yet, each version sounds completely different which is interesting.
The process of translating literary prose is very complex and might provide some challenges or even traps for the translator. For the very beginning, the translator should consider three main objectives: intention, effect target and audience. Even a very qualified translator may sometimes mistranslate the information, subinterpret the original text, or he can make a superficial interpretation, but one question arises: does he have the right to do it?