On Translation
by ajacart
Our discussion today on issues of translation, and the short passage we read from David Homel’s “Tin-Fluting It: On Translating Dany Laferriere” about Laferriere’s childhood language being Creole despite his writing in French got me thinking about the inherent mediation associated with translation, but also about how Homel may be thinking about the formation of ideas in Laferriere’s mind.
He states that “one is the childhood language, the other is acquired secondarily. One, the internal; the other external” (Homel 50). This struck me as strange since it seemed to assert that Laferriere’s French writing is founded upon his Creole thinking. As though Laferriere thinks in Creole and translates immediately when he’s writing in French. I found this untoward as the way I tend to think about things like this is that when we say something, we are translating from a non-linguistic idea. Any piece of writing is revelatory of an idea or experience, but will never fully capture the essence of whichever, just like a translated piece will never fully elucidate the intent or essence of the original. I think the line from this aptly named poem “On Translation” by Monica de la Torre, “The translator knows that nothing the poet has ever said or written / reveals as much about him as the expression on his face when he / was asked to pose for a picture,” captures the sentiment well. Any writing is fallible in representation compared to the physical equivalent. The opening line of the poem also serves to capture the notion of translation, “Not to search for meaning, but to reedify a gesture, an intent.” Any translation, under this view, serves not to mediate the original author’s experience, but to recapture an instance. So in the case of “The World is Moving Around Me”, David Homel would not be mediating or filtering Laferriere’s experiences necessarily, but reframing them in the English language. Similarly, Laferriere isn’t mediating with French between his Creole experience and his work, but capturing the event of the earthquake with words. Reedifying the gesture of the ground shaking and then applying meaning with language.
Thank you for your insight. This post prompted me to think about the formulation of linguistics, and what precedes this. You suggest that some may translate from a non-linguistic idea or experience. I am struggling a bit to understand what a non-linguistic idea or experience looks like. Personally, when I have thoughts, they form in my mind through language. Yes, they are supplemented by images, but I cannot form ideas exclusively through these images.
I agree with your concept of applying meaning through language, but I would suggest that perhaps image-based thought process is different than Laferriere’s. I think this because Laferriere’s process is to write down each experience in his life as it is happening; he does not put them into pictures. In my opinion, this implies that Laferriere may differ from image-based thought process (as you successfully illustrate in de la Torre’s poem), and that his experiences may be defined by language.