Everyone Loves to Hate a Translator

 While I had never heard of The Vegetarian scandal before reading these articles, they didn't surprise me. Translations, in general, are only commented on if the critic wishes to expose their failings. Indeed, the Tim Parks article delighted in recounting these sentence-to-sentence failings of translation, gleefully charting out the path that had led to Deborah Smith's doom. Criticizing translation isn't just fun; it makes us feel superior, sophisticated, in-the-know. We can show off our multilingualism, our literary pedigree, our refined concern for the fate of those poor ignorant readers who might be led astray by infelicitous anglicisms. What else could possibly provide the same thrill of justice? Why, the translation defense. Countering the critic's pedantry with polemic, calling upon the wider theories and principles to support one's point of view. Deborah Smith's article was simultaneously fascinating and completely confusing in regards to what translation is. What a relief it was to return to the sobriety of Petrarch's translators.

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