Theory of Knowledge - Course Companion for Students Marija Uzunova Dang Arvin Singh Uzunov Dang

Garia Marquz appars oftn on
Garil
lists of favourit authors. Howvr,
popl’s
rading his work in English is atually
anyon
a translation y Grgory Raassa, a
rading
litrary translator, st known for
rsptd
vrsions of works y famous
English-languag
Amrian novlists, among thm Jorg
Latin
Garill Garia Marquz and Julio
Amado,
Famously, Garia Marquz had said
Cortazar.
Raassa’s translation of One Hundred Years
that
Solitude was ttr than th original. To what
of
ar English languag radrs assing
xtnt
Marquz’s work? Or is it, as th Polish
Garia
and Nol laurat Wislawa Szymorska
pot
said (quotd in Popova 2016), “that
on
miral whn a translation stops ing a
rar
is it that maks a translation good, or
What
or ttr than anothr? Clarly th ontxt
ad,
translating a washing-mahin manual
mattrs:
a diffrnt proposition from translating a
is
novl, rligious txt, sintifi papr or
litrary
In som ontxts prision is paramount,
haiku.
in othrs prision may sondary to
whil
asthti quality that is dsrid as artisti,
an
various polaritis hav n usd to
Indd,
translation: as an art or sin, as pris
dsri
rativ, as intrprtiv or ruls-asd. You
or
sns that translation rquirs a alaning
might
ths tnsions. For xampl, omputr-assistd
of
systms, whih us ruls aout word
translation
and syntax, suggst options to a human
ordr
to mak th final, asthti, judgmnt.
ing
addition, thr is th fundamntal qustion of
In
omptny: you might assum, rightly,
languag
knowing th sour languag is a or
that
for translators. This assumption was
omptn
whn Ursula L Guin, a pionring
hallngd
stmd novlist and translator, produd
and
own “translation” of Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching,
hr
knowing no Classial Chins. Instad
dspit
usd a 1898 translation y Paul Carus
sh
th assistan of JP Saton, a profssor of
and
a translation ut as a lyrial “rndition”, as
as
and unsholarly”, xplaining
“idiosynrati
like that reader to see why people have loved
would
book for twenty-ve hundred years.
the
Guin mad important intrprtiv disions
L
prsnt th author, Lao Tzu, and his ook
that
losly alignd with hr intrprtation of
mor
“funny, kn, kind, modst, indstrutil,
it:
and inxhaustily rfrshing ”
outragous,
1998). Hrman, in a rviw of L
(Hrman
ook, notd that anything that wnt
Guin’s
th spirit of th ook, as sh undrstood
against
was unapologtially altrd, inluding
it,
to th “king”, “sag”, “mpir” and
rfrns
(usd as a positiv trait), whih sh
“proprity”
rsptivly with “humankind,” “wis
rplad
“th puli good” and “odin”
souls”,
as a ngativ trait). Politial and war-
(usd
ommntary was similarly dltd. L
rlatd
appars to omit, rarrang or rintrprt
Guin
lashs with hr task of making
whatvr
intlltual and spiritual sns”
“asthti,
Lao Tzu’s work. Dspit th xtnt of
of
hangs, L Guin’s work is dsrid
ths
“sholastially rsponsil” and rflting
as
rsarh and onsidral
“painstaking
slf-onsiousnss”
mthodologial
1998).
(Hrman
4III. Methods and tools
III.2 Problems with translation
translation and oms … a sond original”?
as follows.
Tao Te Ching is partly in prose, partly in verse;
The
as we dene poetry now, not by rhyme and meter
but
as a patterned intensity of language, the whole
but
is poetry. I wanted to catch that poetry, its
thing
strange beauty. Most translations have caught
terse,
in their net, but prosily, letting the beauty
meanings
through. And in poetry, beauty is no ornament;
slip
is the meaning. It is the truth … . Scholarly
it
of the Tao Te Ching as a manual for rulers
translations
a vocabulary that emphasizes the uniqueness
use
the Taoist “sage,” his masculinity, his authority.
of
language is perpetuated, and degraded, in
This
popular versions. I wanted a Book of the Way
most
to a present-day, unwise, unpowerful, and
accessible
unmale reader, not seeking esoteric secrets,
perhaps
listening for a voice that speaks to the soul. I
but
(Le Guin 1997)
rativ, honst or dply fling.
Chins. Sh dsrid th alaimd rsult not
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