True translation has its own shadows.

August 19, 2015 9:05 AM

Translator's Note.

A translator must naturally take certain liberties with other people’s words in order to wrest the most truth into the text. In this essay on translation, composed strictly of quotations, I have taken the liberty of replacing select words and phrases with “translation,” “translator,” and the various verb forms of “translate.” I have also committed untold infidelities.

Protip: Read the version below the footnotes.

posted by shakespeherian (6 comments total)

Somebody once said there's nothing new under the sun. I think it was Pete Seeger.
posted by infinitewindow at 9:40 AM on August 19, 2015 [1 favorite]

Neat post.

I have found myself translating a lot of social media posts (of all things!) these days, and, due to 733t-speak and abbreviations, sometimes I have to add a lot of context to make whatever I'm translating make any sense at all.
posted by Nevin at 10:29 AM on August 19, 2015

i don't understand. what do the colours mean? why do colours change in the middle of words? why is there sometimes just a single word in one colour?
posted by andrewcooke at 1:23 PM on August 19, 2015 [1 favorite]

I felt the ghost of Borges in this one.
posted by mrdaneri at 1:43 PM on August 19, 2015 [2 favorites]

[This modified] cut up is a[n intention]al method of juxtaposition in which [deMarco] literally cuts up passages of prose by... other writers and then pastes them back together....
posted by otherchaz at 9:08 PM on August 19, 2015

literally

[figuratively]
posted by otherchaz at 9:36 PM on August 19, 2015 [1 favorite]