Translation Essays

When thinking about translations to evaluate based on Gadamer’s hermeneutic philosophy, I decided it would be interesting to look at a situation where an individual took a poem and put it to music to create a song. This serves as a translation from the language of pure written (or sometimes spoken) word, to the combined languages of of words and music. Wikipedia has a list of songs based on poems in both classical and modern genres. For this reflection, I chose to look at John Cale’s song “Do Not

Charles Scott Moncrieff’s translation of Beowulf is more linguistically similar to the original text than interpretive of that text which indicates a formal equivalence philosophy. Moncrieff’s translation uses literal translations of the original language, and mirrors the structure and layout of the original text. The first line of Moncrieff’s translation, “Then came from the moor / under misty slopes,” appears to be an exact translation of the original first line. Also illustrated in the first line

Walter Benjamin’s (1892-1940) philosophy of language and translation is haunted by a ghost and influenced by Kabbalah, the Jewish mystical tradition. This can be seen in his magna opera: On Language as Such and on the Language of Man (1916) and The Task of the Translator (1923). The former essay introduces a distinctly theological understanding of the linguistic theory; the latter is concerned with the translation theory as a form of art. Benjamin’s inspiration comes from both the death of his childhood

On the surface, just one out of numerous early English translations of the Bible: hardcover book, written in small font and columns, but indeed, a very significant piece of history. Published in 1876, not only was Julia Evelina Smith’s translation of the Bible the first one ever translated by a woman, it was also the only contemporary English translation out of the original languages available to readers for almost twenty years until the publication of the last part of the British revised version

Act 2 of “Translations” proved to be just as interesting as the first act. One of the main things that made me think deeply was when Hugh said, “But remember that words are signals, counters. They are not immortal. And it can happen—to use an image you’ll understand—it can happen that a civilization can be imprisoned in a linguistic contour which no longer matches the landscape of… fact.” I had never considered the fact that words aren’t immortal. For instance, words that were used a hundred years

In “Lost in Translation”, Lera Boroditsky describes the importance of language to large corporate businesses so they know what to expect and they will learn more about it in her studies. The article, “Lost in Translation” was published in The Wall Street Journal to help businesses understand the impact language has on people in all parts of the world. Boroditsky captures her audience by using the nursery rhyme “Humpty Dumpty” which uses the appeal to authority. She talks about her experience and

Criticisms of Eichel’s Essay In “Interpreting ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’: Translation and Manipulation of Audience Expectations,” Andrew Eichel makes a convincing argument as to how translations can affect pieces of writing. Throughout his essay, Eichel lays out a vast amount of examples as to how translations affect writing; however, there are issues with how this evidence was presented. Firstly, it is not clear what kind of audience is addressed in the essay. Eichel also presents an extremely

Why do translations differ from one another? Well,“ translations" are like a written puzzle that is incapable "to produce equivalent versions of verbal stimuli” (Sechrest, Fay and Zaidi). Deciphering the meaning of a massive work could possibly be as difficult as translating a single word. For example, a tyrant king might look at his regime as beneficial; while, citizens might dispute otherwise. It does not matter how, but to make sure to be inside the walls of Troy. Various individuals have translated

Ever since the creation of written language, humanity has been connected on profound levels with each other. However, the gap in between separate languages has also hampered this connection in the lost experiences of translations. Although the nature of language itself is universal, the differences between two languages often obstructs the reader 's ability to fully comprehend a literature piece. The translator 's struggle to balance between poetic purposes and the intended meaning of the author

The image of "Margarete," which is an idealized innocent blond-haired female figure of Goethe’s Faust is ironically juxtaposed with Shulamith. The two names of the women are separated into different lines and never joined together in one line. The poet sets them apart to draw a comparison. Celan’s use of juxtaposition shows the Nazis idealized race of blond hair and blue eyes in contrast to the dark “ashen” hair of Shulamith as an identifying race of Jews. When looking at the etymology of the name

Apparently this method is like the previous one [word-for-word], yet it is not, it is different. In favor of this method of translation, the translator's task is to keep the same category of the word while rendering from the source language into the target one. In other words, a word is translated into a word, a phrase into a phrase, a noun into a noun, and an adjective into an adjective. Furthermore, an idiom has to be translated into an idiom, a metaphor into a metaphor, and a proverb into a proverb

words may be interpreted differently. For example, the differences between the William Aaltonen and Joachim Neugroschel translations of The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka are noticeable yet relatively minor. The first dissimilarity is when William Aaltonen uses “troubled” to describe a dream that Gregor Samsa, the main character, had, while in the Joachim Neugroschel translation, he uses “agitated”. Both words mean quite differential things. “Agitated” seems more severe and is sharp, whereas “troubled”

Contrary to popular belief, the job of a professional translator entails more than just being fluent in more than one language. Much like in other jobs, professional translators need a lot of training and practice to become great at what they do. If you're interested in this line of work, here are the most important things to know: • Test Yourself The first thing you need to find out is whether you have what it takes or not. If you're a native English speaker, taking a Defense Language Proficiency

The Specific Challenges of English to French Adaptation Illustrated in The Simpsons The translation of humorous English-speaking television material to French has raised many issues of both linguistic and cultural nature (Vandaele 33). Watching a dubbed version of one’s favorite television show has sometimes proven startling: hearing prerecorded laughs when you did not identify a joke, distinguishing a failed attempt at being funny, or simply not understanding a gag are issues many viewers have

Looking at the world, it all looks so magical, with all of its beautifully done buildings. However, “Everything’s uglier up close” (Green, 57), even the hardest rocks can’t cover up the “paperness” [1] of the world. Whitman wrote “Leaves of Grass” as a way to represent himself, and his perspective of the fakeness, and materialism of life. John green, on the other hand, used Whitman’s poem “Song of Myself” in his book “Paper Towns” to discuss his own point of view on materialism. Margo Roth Spiegelman

In a traditional Kabuki production of “The Ugly Duckling”, how are theatre elements used to enhance characterization? Kabuki is a traditional Japanese form of theater that takes us back to the Edo Period while enriching us with its impressive forms of art. From elaborated costumes, dramatic make-up, unconventional wigs and exaggerated expressions portrayed by the actors that convey an essential message to the audience, Kabuki claims its conventional form of theater being one the three finest traditions

In “The Child and the Shadow,” written by Ursula K. Le Guin, the author examines the relationship between a person and his/her shadow and the boundary between the collective conscious and collective unconscious mind. At the beginning of her essay, Le Guin recounts a fairy tale that she remembers from childhood. The fairy tale follows a man, who is too apprehensive to act upon his fascination of meeting the beautiful woman in the house across the street, while his shadow is much more confident in

1. What is the title of the text and what is the text about? I selected the story with the title of “The Bath” by Raymond Carver. The day before the birthday of a boy(Scotty) the mother of the boy asked the baker to prepare a cake to celebrate his son’s birthday. The day after Scotty gets hit by a car on his birthday, falls into a coma, and gets taken to the hospital. The boy's father and mother are near his hospital bed waiting to hear news about their son’s health from the doctors. The mother

A New Type of Victorian Women In her poem “Goblin Market” Christina Rossetti offers a social critique of the rigid categories of women in the Victorian period; Rossetti’s poem draws upon the notion of “the angel in the house”- the ideal Victorian woman who is dedicated to her husband, submissive, and ‘pure’. To assert her critique, Rossetti incorporates the concept of “the fallen woman”- an impure woman who has “fallen” from her “angel” position resulting from sexual transgression. Concurrently,

Essay 3- Interpretations from Influences (Tornado Child) Kwame Dawes, an author of poems, novels, and anthologies, was born and raised in Jamaica, later moving to the States in pursuit of his current employment at the University of Nebraska. He writes mainly about the themes of ethnicity, influenced by Jamaican culture and the musician Bob Marley. “Tornado Child” contains a storm of concepts. This poem is intriguing because of its ability to draw different ideas of the theme based on the reader’s