When I read something, whether it be a book, meme, or road
sign, I place no consideration as to whether it is translated or not. In modern
society, translation is just that easy, opening Google Translate, then copying
and pasting being the minimum requirement. All in all, translation is one of many
developments that has made a more globalized society.
The reading I was exposed to yesterday made mention of
something along the lines of, “Translated gives you what you don’t know you
want.” As I described to my peers, I interpreted this as pertaining to the
unawareness of us to other cultures, and by translating a text into our own tongue,
we are given a sneak peek into the culture of the author and the culture of the
environment they create in their literature through its setting and characters.
Our previous unawareness is wiped away and instead our doors are opened to something
different, something eye-opening, something beautiful.
On the other hand, that beauty can be lost if translation
fails. Not only can a foreign reader fail to really capture the culture of the
translated literature if this is done poorly, but even worse it can
misrepresent a culture in a light which would disgrace its inhabitants. This can
occur, and often does especially with the consistently negative content of the
news, through translation of certain material and lack thereof of other
material, painting a culture or nation in an unfavourable and perhaps biased
manner. This is why translation should be done with care.
I look at it with a very simple perspective: translation
increases the content available to me. Regardless of whether it provides a
whole new view on life or anything of that gist, I believe that the more
content that is out there and available, the better informed we can be.
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