Value of Literature in Translation

In the article Why Won't English Speakers Read Books in Translation, Anderson states "Literature – fiction especially – offers a crucial window into the lives of others, promoting empathy and understanding in a way that traveling somewhere rarely does. By not translating more widely, publishers are denying us greater exposure to one of reading’s most vital functions." This statement is echoed throughout the article Found in Translation, with focus on the contemporary Arabic novel, providing us with "answers to questions we did not know we wanted to ask". Translated works allow us to access different narratives, offering us a more balanced perspective and therefore, a better understanding of our world. For instance, Things Fall Apart by China Achebe was written as a counter narrative to the colonial perspective at that time.

In previous posts, I've discussed the significance and complexity of the relationship between language and culture. In this sense, language can affect the historical, cultural and social context a text is received in. This is because that language's and that culture's attitude and values will be transferred as well. Writing in a certain language can reveal the author's intention. For instance, Achebe choses to interpose Western linguistic and literary forms with Igbo phrases, tales and other forms of Igbo orality, in order to preserve Igbo culture and offer an effective and balanced counter narrative to the colonial attitudes at the time. By writing in English, Achebe could reach a much wider audience and expand its value to contemporary times.

However, in The Thief and The Dogs, Naguib Mahfouz writes in Arabic for the Egyptian people. Thus, Mahfouz is given access to Egypt's attitudes and values in order to create a context for his text. However, in translation, it can be difficult to transfer the same attitudes and values with a different language, and this can therefore affect the context in which the text is read and interpreted. In the article, What makes a good literary translator, Daniel Hahn, director of the British Centre for Literary Translation, and Urdu language translator Fahmida Riaz comments that "Every word or phrase; every syllable, for that matter, will be different from the original text." and that "Every translation is an interpretative act, as well as a creative one." In this sense, the role of translators can be seen as ideological gatekeepers and negotiators of foreign values in the way foreign texts are translated.

Furthermore, another learning outcome questions "how form, structure and style can not only be seen to influence meaning but can also be influenced by context." Riaz states that "there’s not a single word in any of the languages I translate that can map perfectly onto a word in English." In view of this, translation can change the "form, structure and style" of the text. Riaz continues with "Anything that is, itself, a ‘linguistic’ quality will by definition be anchored in a particular language — whether it’s idiom, ambiguity, or assonance. All languages are different. There are congruences between languages that are more closely related, of course, but those relationships are very much in the minority." Essentially, in order to capture the essence of what and how the author is trying to communicate, translators may have to change their literary devices in light of the language and their rules.