Language is slippery.
The last several days I have been immersed in translating my essay on Mark Twain from English into Spanish. It has been a fascinating - if tedious - exercise, involving two dictionaries, www.wordreference.com, at least four different brains, countless cups of coffee, and about 15 hours of work for 10 hours of English text. It has heightened my awareness of the depths of language and its relationship to culture. I know that if I wrote an essay in Spanish, originally, it would have a whole different rhythm and construction, different word choices and nuances.
I feel like each word is a stone that I toss into a pool of ideas. In English, I know how the words ripple - how they will affect the surface of the pool. In Spanish, I don't know the ripple effect; I don't know the connotations. If I describe Huck Finn as "rough and naive," it is different than saying he is "brutish and ignorant."
And some words don't translate. I have struggled to find an equivalent word for "reinvention" - to refer to reinventing oneself - in Spanish. And I'm not sure about an equivalent word for "place," meaning more than a location, but a sense of place.
I love this about language. But I also feel like when I present this essay in Spanish, its meaning will be sliding all over the place.
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Slippery slope indeed... I wonder what you'd end up with if someone translated your Spanish translation back into English??
ReplyDeleteKeep your chin up :-) Be thankful for the beautiful skills you have in English and the functionality of your Spanish. Your hard work will prevail.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to recommend the writing of Mexican writer/journalist ELENA PONIATOWSKA. She wrote "Noches en Tlatelolco" circa 1990s.
ReplyDeleteJenny, you are a superb writer. Thanks to Liz, I am enjoying your posts and feel I'm right there in Guanajuato. I especially liked your article on translation and its challenges.
Cordiales saludos a los dos, feliz viaje y buena suerte. Stephanie (Mike's mom)
Hola Jenny
ReplyDeleteI read with interest your experiences in translating from English to Spanish. Teaching is my first love and right next to it is translating! I could dive into an ocean of words and come up into space of definitions! I love pondering in all the different shades and meanings that one single word could have. This is probably late but here are some suggestions for the words that you were looking for.
Sense of place:
• sentido de pertenencia
• sentido de lugar
• sentido de la ubicación
• querencia
"reinvention" - to refer to reinventing oneself
reinventarse or reinventarse a uno mismo
If I describe Huck Finn as "rough and naive," it is different than saying he is "brutish and ignorant."
Huck Finn “brusco e ingenuo”
Estoy disfrutando muchisimo tu blog!
Saludos.
Raquel