Translation: A Constant Act of Balancing Words

Posted on 29. August 2022 by australianfantastic

by Lea-Marie Schneider

Translation can be done in several ways with different emphases and different theories in mind. The focus we had was based on one of Walkowitz’s theories about the Born Translated: The Contemporary Novel in an Age of World Literature (Walkowitz 2015) which critically engages with the global dominance of English written novels. Born translated novels are written to be translated or even as if they are already translated. Those texts are treated either “as medium and origin rather than as afterthought” (Walkowitz 3-4) translations and mostly “pretend[…] to take place in a language other than the one in which they have been composed” (Walkowitz 4). The focus of the seminar was to engage with the Anglophone Arab Novel and how the authors managed to write their stories in English with contexts and plots that are tied to another culture. Those various forms of translation that happened in the process of writing of the authors are impacting the understanding of a potential readership who possibly do not have knowledge about the Arabic cultures, values, or habits.

The excerpt that was translated by us as a group was taken from the novel The Moor’s Account (2015) written by the author Laila Lalami. Our translation was mainly informed by Rebecca Walkowitz’s Born Translated: The Contemporary Novel in an Age of World Literature (2015). The novel is a historical fictional narrative and tells the story of Mustafa ibn Muhammad, a Moroccan slave who explores La Florida with a Castilian exploration crew and his owner. First, we agreed to stay as close to the original text as possible and tried to keep the meaning and the mood the source text conveys. This required us to consider the overall context of the novel and the context of the particular part that was to be translated. The fact that the novel’s genre is that of historical fiction was also a big part of the translation in terms of word choices. For example, the word “treasurer” (Lalami 47) can be translated into the word “Kämmerer” or “Schatzmeister”. The second possibility seemed more natural as a word choice because the novel is a historical fictional narrative and therefore ancient terminology fits more into the overall context. We also decided to keep the Spanish words and names as they are without translating them into German. For example, the Spanish word “Señor” (Lalami 47) was kept and was not translated into the German version Senior. This reminds the potential reader of other languages and places and possibly expands the view of the superiority of a language. As translators we always had to be aware of the grammar of both languages, the target and the source language. Changing the word order sometimes caused problems and changed the whole meaning. The sense was sometimes lost in translation but could be restored by the position of several words. Sometimes even the usage of metaphorical sentences is problematic and could cause misunderstandings. Therefore, we agreed upon a less metaphorical style and translated “he never said it to the treasurers face” (Lalami 47) into “in Abwesenheit des Schatzmeisters”.

The process of translation was a permanent balance of what makes the most sense and what keeps the implied mood of the novel. Even if in the position of the translator one tries to preserve as much meaning as possible with the willingness to keep the sentence structure, there are always compromises and decisions to be made. It is surprising how much one person can think about the choice of a word out of five options and how much time one paragraph can consume. Even though you are not the writer of the novel the decisions that you make can affect the novel and the meaning of the whole translation.

Works Cited

Lalami, Laila. The Moor’s Account. Vintage; Reprint Edition, 2015.
Walkowitz, Rebecca. Born Translated: The Contemporary Novel in an Age of World Literature. New York: Columbia University Press, 2015.

Confronting the West with Mustafa’s Story: Translating Laila Lalami’s The Moor’s Account as a Process of Amplifying Voices

Posted on 29. August 2022 by australianfantastic

by Leonita Rexhaj, Zainab Al-Tekreeti, and Anna Prickarz

Laila Lalami’s The Moor’s Account tells the story of Mustafa ibn Muhammad ibn Abdussalam al-Zamori, the slave of a Spanish conquistador. The fictional memoir is written in the first person, creating the illusion that we are reading the protagonist’s account of the Spanish conquest. He tells us on the very first pages, even before the first chapter, that he will share his side of the story, in contrast to the story told earlier by the Spanish. In many ways, The Moor’s Account is, therefore, a born-translated novel (cf. Walkowitz, 4ff). Not only does it refer to other existing versions of one story, suggesting processes of translation, but it also uses form and language to create the illusion of having been translated. The memoir is written in English, but it suggests taking place in several other languages: Amazigh and Arabic, Mustafa’s native tongues, Spanish and Portuguese, the tongues of the colonisers and conquistadors, as well as several indigenous South American languages. The Moor’s Account uses several stylistic devices to create the illusion of having been translated, such as using untranslated words, implying through context that something must have taken place in another language, using unnatural English, referring directly to translation and interpreting and more. In our course “Self-Translation in Anglophone Arab Narratives” we were given the task of producing a translation of an excerpt of the novel, keeping in mind theoretical information we had been taught (cf. Walkowitz, 4ff). When we started the process of translating the selected text passages from English into German, we thus already expected that the most challenging aspect of translation would be to keep the illusion of a translated piece of writing.

When encountering non-English words in the memoir we were left to decide whether to leave them as they were or to go out of our way to translate them into German to make the content more accessible to readers who might have no knowledge of other languages. After having been familiarized with the concept of foreignization (cf. Bassnett, 44ff) this choice was easy to make. Foreignization is the term for the act of deliberately forcing the reader to deal with unfamiliarity in the form of individual words as well as concepts and conventions in translations, adding new perspectives to the target language. When pursuing the foreignizing strategy, the reader is forced out of their comfort zone and the fact that a (born-)translated text is being worked with is consciously being highlighted rather than hidden. We concluded that Lalami had used foreignization intentionally and thus followed her example by leaving Spanish and Arabic names of characters and places, as well as single letters such as the “ñ” in “Señor” as they were.

As we translated the text passages as a group of six, we first divided the passages into six parts, so that each of us could work intensively with the part assigned. Each part was around two to three sentences long, so we were able to work very thoroughly with them. Every one of us created a translation, and, at times, several options for translating a single sentence, where keeping the balance between coherent German sentence structure and keeping the illusion of a translated text was especially challenging. We then met up to discuss and change around single words, sentence structure and stylistic devices, keeping the concepts of foreignization and the born-translated novel in mind.

Punctuation also played an important role in the translation. Laila Lalami omitted quotation marks when it came to direct speech, and we had to decide if we were going to emulate her approach or if we were going to add them to make the reading of the translation easier. We unanimously settled on leaving them out because we felt it was important to stay as close to the author’s original vision as possible. Where the English language was ambiguous, we had to decide which translation to choose: For example, in the English version, the river Guadalquivir could be read as personified – or not. We went through several versions of translation: not personified at all, implicitly personified, and obviously personified. After much reflection, we decided that to implicitly personify the river would be the closest to the ambiguous English version – ambiguity itself would, in German, be impossible. Verbal paraphrases posed a challenge for us as well. We noticed that there were no clear lines separating individual languages in our mental lexicons. Phrases in English that were translated word for word into German seemed to be correct at first glance because the structure of English is so engrained into our brains. Utmost attentiveness was required to find the right way to phrase it in German.

Our main takeaway from the project was that translating literature is not just transferring the literal meaning of each word from the source language to the target language, but rather transferring the sense of it and the story behind it. In the seminar, we discussed how translating literature is central to allowing literature to travel beyond borders so that writers can speak out across generations and cultures, and as a result, giving the readers access to such stories encourages them to experience literature beyond their representation of the world, thus amplifying voices which are otherwise left unheard.

Primary source

Lalami, Laila. The Moor’s Account. Vintage Books, New York (2014).

Secondary sources

Walkowitz, Rebecca L. Born Translated. Columbia University Press, New York (2015).
Bassnett, Susan. Translation. Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, London and New York (2014).

Lost in Translation? Interpreting and Identity in Suki Kim’s The Interpreter

Posted on 26. May 2021 by anikaklose

The Interpreter (2003) is the first novel by Suki Kim, who was born in Korea and immigrated to the US with her parents at the age of thirteen. The plot revolves around the interpreter Suzy Park, also born in Korea and immigrated to America, who lost contact to her parents after she ran away with a married man. She later finds out her parents were murdered, but the case is not solved, which leads Suzy to investigate the murder herself. Aside from the murder mystery, Kim’s novel touches upon themes like depression, hybridity and multiculturalism.

The character of the interpreter in any kind of fiction certainly became more prominent in recent years, especially in Speculative Fiction. Examples include Ted Chiang’s Arrival, George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, as well as Samantha Shannon’s The Priory of the Orange Tree. However, interpreters are also often used in crime fiction, which is the case in Suki Kim’s novel. Just like the name of the novel’s title already suggests, interpreting is one of the central issues of Kim’s work. The question of what interpreting has to do with detective narratives and its use might arise if you are, just like I was, unfamiliar with the concept. Is interpreting a mere plot device? Is it of any significance at all to the character of Suzy? If you want to find out, please do keep on reading!

As Suzy narrates the story, her profession as an interpreter is of high relevance time and time again. So let’s take a look at how and why Suzy uses her interpreting skills throughout the novel. When Suzy first mentions her job, she says: “The interpreter, however, is the shadow. The key is to be invisible. She is the only one in the room who knows the truth, a keeper of secrets” (Kim12). Invisibility and the illusion of transparency is also discussed in Lawrence Venuti’s The Translator’s Invisibility and underlines the translator’s ability to intervene (1).

These aspects of intervention and manipulation can also be found in Suzy’s interpretations, which is why she can be called an untrustworthy interpreter. Ingrid Kurz, a scholar researching infidel interpreters in fiction, clarifies that the first and most important task of an interpreter is conveying the speaker’s message as truthfully and clearly as possible (206). Any other possible outcomes caused by the interpreter are generally considered as infidelity – regardless of intention. Examples include wilful manipulation or betrayal, a lack of skills, or siding with an underprivileged speaker (cf. Kurz). In Suzy’s case, she herself says she often “finds herself cheating” (Kim 15). In a flashback, Suzy interprets for the first time in the novel and sides with a Korean man who fell victim to a cultural misunderstanding:

“[…]‘Surely,’ the lawyer insists, ‘the injury must not have been severe if you even refused medical attention!’ But Suzy knows that it is a cultural misunderstanding. It is the Korean way always to underplay the situation, to declare one is fine even when suffering from pain or ravenous hunger. This might stem from their Confucian or even Buddhist tradition, but the lawyers don’t care about that. […] The witness gets all nervous and stammers something about how he’s not a liar, and Suzy puts on a steel face to hide her anger and translates, ‘I was in shock, and the pain was not obvious to me until I got home and collapsed.’”
Kim 15f.

Suzy is well aware of the controversy attached to her decision, because a revelation would very likely cost her her job(16). What this scene very well illustrates, is how Suzy is caught between her professional/legal commitment and her personal/moral commitment. Kurz underlines this with the common observation of people with the same ethnic heritage viewing the other as an ally, just as it happens here.

But this is not Suzy’s only intention, as she also willingly misinterprets at court to gain information about her parents: “’Can you describe to me again the ways in which you hire and fire your workers?’ […] Five years ago, you said, you worked for people who are dead. Can you describe to me what happened to them?” (Kim 95). In this situation, she is not helping the underprivileged, but she is manipulating the testimony in order to investigate her parents’ murder further. This demonstrates a usurpation and abuse of power that clearly violates the law and emphasises Suzy’s infidelity. Lastly, it also underlines how Suzy’s need for personal gain leads to her unreliability and therefore connects to her parents’ decision to provide information about fellow Koreans to save their own necks.

Even though interpreting is certainly a tool for Suzy’s detective work, another concept that is central to my argumentation is that of hybridity. Very roughly speaking, the idea of hybridity deals with the “merging of disparate identities” (cf. Burger and Mattila). In relation to Suzy and her actions throughout the novel, one could consider her a hybrid detective, as she is not only the investigator, but is to an extend invested in criminal activity herself. Furthermore, she is also frequently moving between a privileged and poor life, which is by her immigrant parents and her simultaneously going to an Ivy League college (and then dropping out of it). However, the idea of disparate identities also shows in her interpreting skills, since Suzy is constantly torn between to languages or two identities, which connects back to her multicultural upbringing. As Eco puts is, “translation is always a shift, not between two languages, but between two cultures” (192). This impression can be backed up by Suzy:

“Being bilingual, being multicultural should have brought two worlds into one heart, and yet for Suzy, it meant a persistent hollowness. It seems that she needed to love one culture to be able to love the other. Piling up cultural references led to no further identification. […] She was stuck in a vacuum where neither culture moved nor owned her. Deep inside, she felt no connection […].”
Kim 166.

As underlined by the quote, Suzy’s sense of identity is constantly challenged, which leads to her identity crisis caused by a missing sense of belonging. Therefore, her skills as an interpreter are not only a mere plot device to help her investigate her parents’ murder, but are also crucial to her character as a whole, as interpreting offers an intro-perspective into her mind and the issue of multiculturalism. Just as Suzy links the job of the interpreter to invisibility, she and her cultural understanding of herself become invisible and hollow. In the end, interpreting is essential to protagonist and plot and the key to Suki Kim’s work.

Works Cited

Burger, Bettina and Lucas Mattila: “Hybridity and Doubling in Suki Kim’s The Interpreter.” YouTube, uploaded by Lucas Mattila, 25 November 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hw93CsFBNuI.

Eco, Umberto: Experiences in Translation. University of Toronto Press, 2000.

Kim, Suki. The Interpreter. Picador, 2003.

Kurz, Ingrid. “On the (In)fidelity of (Fictional) Interpreters.” Transfiction. Research into the Realities of Translation Fiction, edited by Klaus Kaindl and Karlheinz Spitzl, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2014, pp. 205-220.

Venuti, Lawrence. The Translator’s Invisibility. A History of Translation. Second Edition. Routledge, 2008.

Anglophone Literary Studies Blog

Here you can find blog posts by students and scholars from Düsseldorf University's Anglistik and Amerikanistik

Tag Archives: Translation

Translation: A Constant Act of Balancing Words

Confronting the West with Mustafa’s Story: Translating Laila Lalami’s The Moor’s Account as a Process of Amplifying Voices

Lost in Translation? Interpreting and Identity in Suki Kim’s The Interpreter