Sunday, November 7, 2010

Translation & Politics

Just as we're not supposed to talk about politics in casual conversation, we're probably not supposed to talk about it in relation to translation. But I will.

It is indeed Dangerous Translation when politics get involved. For instance, look at any of the readings we've done that have included a translation between two cultures that don't normally see eye to eye politically. It becomes a question of preserving culture while also imposing another culture and perhaps advancing an agenda.

Can something like Mein Kampf be translated without advancing the tyrannical (in my opinion) ideas of Adolf Hitler? Perhaps. This is where literal and free translation would come in. Especially if the target language has restrictions that prevent 'translating' ideas. Which it no doubt will. Literally translating it would lose a lot of the nuances to the piece. *Note that I have not read Mein Kampf so I am just going off of what I would assume, which is also dangerous...
Free translating would depend on the translator. Just as we saw in 'translating italian' there a numerous words for a word in another language that can be used. Should the translator choose the 'right' word, then the piece can take a direction that will allow the reader to read Mein Kampf as though it were just another book.
But it's not just another book. And the Korean play is not just a romance novel by Danielle Steel. There are cultural and political implications to the translation of these pieces that cannot be avoided.

So to answer my own question, no, one cannot translate a politically charged object without expressing it's fundamental ideas, which in the case of Mein Kampf, might lead to death.

I think the same applies to Religion. For instance, the numerous translations of the bible have shown that one is not unbiased when translating it. It gets tricky for me personally because people tend to translate the bible in order to get people to read it a certain way. So for instance Mein Kampf could be translated to breed new mass killers.

There are some translations that shouldn't happen. Poems. And Politics.

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