I never understood how intricate the process of translation was until I heard Andrew Zawacki speak of his experience translating. One of the very first things he mentioned when talking about his experience was the strong friendships that he created along the process. Translation is a form of friendship with you, the author, the story and most importantly the languages. Translation does not have to be word for word to convey the same meaning as the original writing.

Translation has many constrains because many words or phrases doesn’t have exact translation in other languages. Being trilingual and learning another language currently, I always face the problem of not being able to say something in another language with the same enthusiasm or strength as my original thought. Zawacki mentioned how demanding the author was about little things such as space and font. This is a clear conviction that every aspect of writing adds to the overall meaning of a story. When the writing is translated, it is just as important to keep in mind not to change the story in the process. It is even harder when different forms of writing are being translated such as sonnets which has an exact form that won’t be the same if you added or deleted a line. Zawacki emphasized how difficult it was for him to translate when there is a continues patter in the original writing because he had to mimic a similar patter to convey the same meaning in his translation. Because of all the barriers that come with translating, I feel that, a translated version of a literature is not quite the same as reading an original. However, I think translation is beautiful because it expands the audience of the writing. One of my favorite authors is the Paulo Coelho who writes most of his books in Portuguese, but I am only able to read his books because of translation.

-Sumaiya