What Authority Can a Translation Claim?

Marcus Perman2022-11-16T23:34:09-07:00

Although we recognise the fundamental importance of translation in the transmission of texts written in languages that we do not know, the question remains as to what authority a translation can claim. The relationship between translation and original has been a source of heated debate for centuries, with widely differing views as to how ‘faithfulness’ in translation might be defined. There is a paradox at the heart of how we view translation, for though we acknowledge the inherent difficulties of the task, we also take translation for granted to the point where translators become invisible. This paper will consider that […]

What Authority Can a Translation Claim?Marcus Perman2022-11-16T23:34:09-07:00

Translation Theories Made Practical

Marcus Perman2022-11-16T23:34:10-07:00

See the text discussed and presentation slides here.

Holly Gayley and Roger Jackson begin the discussion session with some provocations and a quote:

“Had translation depended for its survival on theory, it would have died out long before Cicero. Yet its practice has always assumed principle, the professional conscience of 2,000 years being summed up in Roman Jakobson’s ‘translator of what messages? betrayer of what values?’” – L.G. Kelly, The True Interpreter.

What makes for a good translation?
What are the translations you like to read and why?
What are the kinds of translations you like to create and why?

“Up to a point, each […]

Translation Theories Made PracticalMarcus Perman2022-11-16T23:34:10-07:00

Translating: What and How?

Marcus Perman2022-11-16T23:34:13-07:00

On the second day of the conference, the nuts and bolts of the craft of translation became the focus and the main questions asked in this session were: What tools are in your translation workshop? What skills should one cultivate to be a good translator? How do we cultivate those skills? Elizabeth Napper begins the session by looking at the perennial issue of literal vs. aesthetic translation from a practical standpoint of needing to adjust to the intended audience of the translation. Thupten Jinpa continues this discussion of the tension between fidelity to the text and consideration of the reader […]

Translating: What and How?Marcus Perman2022-11-16T23:34:13-07:00

Kavya in Tibet

Marcus Perman2022-11-16T23:34:13-07:00

Kavya in Tibet is a session following from a workshop on Tseten Zhabdrung’s commentary on poetics (Snyan ngag spyi don) that was hosted at the Latse Library with Gendun Rabsel, Nicole Willock, Andy Quintman, and Kurtis Schaeffer. The Tibetan system of poetics and ornate poetry is highly influential in the history of Tibetan writing and is based on the most important Indian manual of poetics, Daṇḍin’s Mirror of Poetics (Kāvyādarśa). This session introduced some of the fundamental theory and practice of this snyan ngag type of literature. The intellectual gravity of snyan ngag did not make itself felt until 1267 […]

Kavya in TibetMarcus Perman2022-11-16T23:34:13-07:00

Be Kind to Your Reader

Marcus Perman2022-11-16T23:36:57-07:00

In this first keynote speech of the Translation & Transmission Conference series, we hear from internationally renowned scholar and translator David Bellos on a wide range of topics including his approach to translation, uses and misuses of xenisms, translationese, translation history, and an important reminder to “be kind to the reader.” In discussing the history of translation in the western world, Professor Bellos describes two, almost simultaneous, historical origins for translation in the middle of the third century B.C.E., where, for the first time, two texts were brought from one language into another, not just rewritten, or re-encoded, re-elaborated, they […]

Be Kind to Your ReaderMarcus Perman2022-11-16T23:36:57-07:00