Weekly log: 20120822

Two things worth mentioning this week: A research survey I filled in a couple of days ago, and what I had been assigned to translate this week. It was a survey that was posted in a forum. Curiously, it was about “professionalism” in volunteering. Of course it was biased — even sociologists know that there can never be true objectivity in research — but what was interesting was that the survey seemed to imply that word-for-word translation without a change in tone or register is to be the pinnacle in translation. Obviously I do not agree with their viewpoint. Which brings up the other thing I am going to say about the week: the most interesting piece I was assigned to translate this week, essentially, was a collection of short stories. Not even short stories that I particularly empathize with. But I immensely enjoyed working on them. And, of course — you could call this literary translation though I would not dare to claim to be a “literary translator” — to translate word-for-word with no change in register or tone — that is, to keep things same as the original without regard to the target audience’s culture or perceptions — is utter suicide. Things just don’t work that way. Which reminds me that I love working on lyrics. I even like working on poems — despite not having majored in English. Pretty ironic since someone actually suggested that I tried to be a technical translator. Anyway, time to work on my little visual art project. Deadline for submission, this Friday.