[All Episodes]
#7: Footsteps
#6: Series in Decline
#5: Sex, Death and Morals in Horror
#4: The Loudness War
#3: The Rule of Threes
#2: Bad Translations
#1: The Drums From "Be My Baby"
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We all know a bad translation when we see one… or do we? Translations of all sorts can, at best, ensure our shared survival. And at worst, mistranslations have had varied, far-reaching and often disastrous effects, as basic as “all your base are belong to us” or as serious as botched postwar food aid.
This time it’s all about translation. What is it? Is it an art or a science? What does it mean to translate something correctly— and, more importantly, what happens when translation goes wrong? I spoke to Jay Rubin, translator of bestselling author Haruki Murakami, among others, to find out.
Media relevant to SF #2: Bad Translations
Print:
* “After Babel,” George Steiner
* “Making Sense of Japanese: What the Textbooks Don’t Tell You,” Jay Rubin
* “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle,” Haruki Murakami (translated by Jay Rubin)
* “The Art of Translation,” Ranjit Bolt
* “The Art of Translation,” Rosanna Warren
* “Pierre Menard, author of the Quixote,” Jorge Luis Borges (short story)
* “Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference,” Dipesh Chakrabarty
Film:
* Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola, 2003)
This week on Sounds Familiar it’s bad translations.
What is a bad translation and how do they happen? Why is ‘all your base are belong to us’ so funny? How do we spot bad translations… and, more importantly, what happens when we don’t spot them?
Sounds Familiar is a hypertextual adventure for your ears, every Friday on iTunes and a reader near you.
…sorry everyone, I may be spamming a bit this week because the first episode of my podcast will be available this week. I’ll try to keep it to a bearable minimum, but please know that, in addition to merely shameless self-promotion, I’m really excited about and proud of this project.
Also, take note: while you can subscribe in iTunes with the link above, it will be at least a few more days before the podcast is listed in the iTunes directory.
Thanks for your patience.
