Jeremy Tiang talks about how the role of translation is different in fiction and plays. He describes translation as a "productive writing called forth by the original text." This goes back to our in-class discussions of creative inputs of translators. Tiang says that, in his translations, he decides not to focus on getting details right but rather responding creatively. I've been thinking about the relation between accuracy and creative liberty in our weekly translation assignments, and found his talk very insightful to how to balance the two. Here are some points I took away from his talk:
- In theatre, translators are deemed famous enough, or theatrical enough, to translate a performance. Male, celebrity playwrights are favored to write a performace translation, and are given more credit for their work.
- The Lehman Trilogy as a translated play doesn't appear to be translated from the poster; the female translator's name was not even mentioned in reviews of the play.
- There is a notion that translators have to be invisible: "If you've done your job right, people won't even know you've been there, like a ninja. But if that's the case, then how will we ever make a claim for our profession?" Tiang argues that we can't be invisible and brings up similarities between a translator and a performer.
- Hanan Akbari
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