What Makes a Translation

My book editing class attended the "Writer as Translator: Translator as Writer" panel today.
Some thoughts gathered there:

1. A translator is like a musician, and the original author is the composer.
          Or, in other words, they're both artists. What's more, ten different musicians could play the same piece in ten different ways, but it's still the same song. It's kind of cool to think about. I have 3 or 4 different versions of the song "Gypsy David" (one of which I barely recognized). What if I wanted 3 or 4 translations of Dante? Or Beowulf? Or, for that matter, Harry Potter in Spanish? Actually, what about just the fact that I do have two versions of Harry Potter - Spanish and English?
         Just look at the Bible (Isaiah 11:9):

לא-ירצו ולא-ישחיתו בכל-הר קדשי כי-מלאה הארץ דעה את-יהוה כמים לים מכסים
"They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea."
"Nothing will hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for as the waters fill the sea, so the earth will be filled with people who know the LORD."
"No one will harm or destroy on my entire holy mountain, for the land will be as full of the knowledge of the LORD as the sea is filled with water."
"They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea."
         ....and that's just one verse.

2. Writers are translators. They translate reality.
         Well, cool. And here I am, translating my memory of a seminar into a blog post.

3. Conversations are translation.
        Just think about it. If you ask someone how their day went, and they look at the floor an mumble "Good, I guess," you ask what's wrong. If you ask someone how their day went, and they look you in the eye with a big smile and say "Good!" you smile back and want to hear all about the fun they had. So what does "good" mean?




"You always should do what you cannot do" - Willis Barnstone