It seems like a natural corollary to the argument that a translator’s identity should be as closely aligned to the author’s as possible that it is impossible to match any two identities. A Dutch translator by definition could not truly understand Amanda Gorman’s experience of race in America, so I don’t think it’s so important to try. More literally and less epistemologically, it seems hard enough to raise interest in translations and find translators before adding the complication of identity, like R.O. Kwon said about finding a Polish translator in the Bhanoo article. This isn’t to say I don’t think identity has an affect on the translation produced (the errors in the Morrison translation mentioned in the same Bhanoo article definitely affected the text), but I think the cultural knowledge necessary can be learned and proof-read. Thinking of the Patel and Youssef article, I also think the solution for these sorts of questions about the identity of the translator lies not in restriction but in inclusion—in widening the gates for translators and focusing less on traditional rules that have such a narrow conception of a translator’s relationship with language.
Emerson Archer
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