Whether we're aware of it or not, we spend much of our time in this
globalised world in the act of translation. Language is a big part
of it, of course, as anyone who has fumbled with a phrasebook in a
foreign country will know, but behind language is something far
more challenging to translate: culture. As a traveller, a
mistranslation might land you a bowl of who-knows-what when you
think you asked for noodles, and mistranslations in international
politics can be a few steps from serious trouble. But translation
is also a way of entering new and exciting worlds, and forging
links that never before existed.
Linda Jaivin has been translating from Chinese for more than
thirty years. While her specialty is subtitles, she has also
translated song lyrics, poetry and fiction, and interpreted for ABC
film crews, Chinese artists and even the English singer Billy Bragg
as he gave his take on socialism to some Beijing rockers. In Found
in Translation she reveals the work of the translator and considers
whether different worldviews can be bridged. She pays special
attention to China and the English-speaking West, Australia in
particular, but also discusses French, Japanese and even the odd
phrase of Maori. This is a free-ranging essay, personal and
informed, about translation in its narrowest and broadest senses,
and the prism - occasionally prison - of culture.
"About six years ago, President George W. Bush was delivering a
speech at a G8 summit, when, made impatient by the process of
translation, he interrupted his German interpreter: 'Everybody
speaks English, right?' ..." Linda Jaivin, Found in Translation
Linda Jaivin is the author of novels, stories, plays and essays.
Her books include the China memoir The Monkey and the Dragon and
the novels Eat Me and A Most Immoral Woman. In 1992 she co-edited
the acclaimed anthology of translations New Ghosts, Old Dreams:
Chinese Rebel Voices. She has also subtitled many films, including
Chen Kaige's Farewell My Concubine, Zhang Yimou's Hero and Wong Kar
Wai's The Grandmaster.
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