Carpenter Readings - Danielle

One of Carpenter's comments really stood out to me. Carpenter said, "translation to me is very like coloring in a coloring book. You’re stuck with this picture that somebody else drew, and you can give life to it in your own way. That’s what you’re doing in translation—you’re giving life to a work for people to whom it doesn’t mean anything because it’s in a foreign language. You infuse it with life—and you can do it any way you want, which is why, like coloring, it is so much fun!" I find this to be a very pleasant way of looking at translation. There are many ways in which one can decide to fill a coloring page, just as their are multiple way to translate and bring a work to life in other languages. With this outlook, Carpenter explains, the translator's creativity will allow them to fill any holes that may seemingly be left in the translation process. As Carpenter puts it, "you could put a little tree over here if you thought the picture needed one." 

On this same note, Carpenter further explains that translators much have a sense of creativity, a connection to the work and the reader, and a joy in doing what they are doing. As Carpenter says, "People do not seem to appreciate how much you really have to be a child in some ways. You have to have a sort of childlike enjoyment of words and language." If a translator takes themselves too seriously or approaches translation without any imagination, they will struggle to produce a work that not only reflects the original work, but also resonates with the reader. While a goal in translation is too express the author's original ideas as closely as possible,  "you do have to identify with the reader just as much as you identify with the author. That’s another way that you have to balance all the way through: you have to be the child who’s reading the book, the parent who’s reading it to the child, and also the author."