The discussion that we had in class last Thursday once we reconvened from our separate groups helped to shape the course of our discussions for the upcoming readings. Because of the difficulties that are encountered when literature is translated from its original language into another, the question of translation must always be at the forefront of our thoughts when we read this type of literature. Here is a video that I found online of the last four winners of Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. These authors, although none of them speak to the difficulty of translating texts from Arabic into English, outline some of the difficulties that we discussed in class. Its fascinating to me that some of these translators have never even been to the country that they are translating literature from. Without a knowledge of these countries cultures, it seems unlikely that the translation would mirror the author's original text; rather, without this first-hand knowledge even with the help of email, the translation will necessarily loose some of its original power.
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You bring up a very interesting point about translation and the need for the translator to be familiar with the culture. I hadn't thought about this aspect of translation before, and how different it could potentially make a story... and also interesting how, on the contrary, one of the speakers in the video mentioned that some editors believe "there is only one translation" of any given text.
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