El modesto misterio

The essay Anonymous Sources by Eliot Weinberger explains how translations can be modified and provided in different ways. He describes the effects on translations from different cultures and languages and the meaning for it. I enjoyed when he explained how people who speak different languages have many things to say but without translation the message won’t get across to the people, as they want it to. I took that as that the writer is being limited to show his talents to the world and that isn’t fair, just because it’s in their own language many people won’t get to understand it.  Everyone should see the message the writer tries to portray. “Every reading of every poem is a translation into one’s own experience and knowledge- whether it is a confirmation, a contradiction, or an expansion.”  Something else that really caught my attention was when Weinberger explained how some poetry was written in other countries. For example Japanese poetry was written in Chinese and Latin poetry was in imitation of the Greek. With the Japanese, the reason they wrote in Chinese first was because they were greatly influenced by them and their style so then they integrated it into Japanese so they can write it in their language. It’s astonishing how a simple means of translations can go so far. Weinberger talks about how translation is the most anonymous of professions and that the authors don’t talk about their translators other then giving them compliments. How Weinberger was describing the translator, I took it as that they are not as important as the author. I do understand that without the author there would be no story but without the translator there would be no expansion of the authors message. Overall Weinberger explained how truly important translation can be, as he says, “Translation is change and motion; literature dies when it stays the same when it has no place to go.”

Magda Morales.