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Found in Translation: In Praise of a Plural World: Quarterly Essay 52

Found in Translation: In Praise of a Plural World: Quarterly Essay 52

In Praise of a Plural World

by Linda Jaivin
Paperback
Publication Date: 21/11/2013

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This is a free-ranging essay, personal and informed, about translation in its narrowest and broadest senses, and the prism - occasionally prison - of culture.

Whether we're aware of it or not, we spend much of our time in this globalised world in the act of translation. Language is a big part of it, of course, as anyone who has fumbled with a phrasebook in a foreign country will know, but behind language is something far more challenging to translate- culture. As a traveller, a mistranslation might land you a bowl of who-knows-what when you think you asked for noodles, and mistranslations in international politics can be a few steps from serious trouble. But translation is also a way of entering new and exciting worlds, and forging links that never before existed.

Linda Jaivin has been translating from Chinese for more than thirty years. While her specialty is subtitles, she has also translated song lyrics, poetry and fiction, and interpreted for ABC film crews, Chinese artists and even the English singer Billy Bragg as he gave his take on socialism to some Beijing rockers. In Found in Translation she reveals the work of the translator and considers whether different worldviews can be bridged. She pays special attention to China and the English-speaking West, Australia in particular, but also discusses French, Japanese and even the odd phrase of Maori. This is a free-ranging essay, personal and informed, about translation in its narrowest and broadest senses, and the prism - occasionally prison - of culture.
'About six years ago, President George W. Bush was delivering a speech at a G8 summit, when, made impatient by the process of translation, he interrupted his German interpreter- 'Everybody speaks English, right?' . . . ' Linda Jaivin, Found in Translation

Quarterly Essay presents significant contributions to the general debate. Each issue contains a single essay written at length of about 25,000 words. It aims to present the widest range of political, intellectual and cultural opinion.

www.quarterlyessay.com
ISBN:
9781863956307
9781863956307
Category:
Cultural studies
Format:
Paperback
Publication Date:
21-11-2013
Publisher:
Black Inc.
Country of origin:
Australia
Edition:
52nd Edition
Pages:
108
Dimensions (mm):
232x168x9mm
Weight:
0.18kg
Linda Jaivin

Linda Jaivin has been studying Chinese politics, language and culture for more than forty years. She has been a foreign correspondent in China, and is co-editor of the China Story Yearbook, an associate of the Australian Centre on China in the World at the Australian National University and the author of twelve books.

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