{"id":141615,"date":"2020-01-02T09:00:47","date_gmt":"2020-01-02T14:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=141615"},"modified":"2019-12-17T13:30:36","modified_gmt":"2019-12-17T18:30:36","slug":"trash-talk-on-translating-garbage-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2020\/01\/02\/trash-talk-on-translating-garbage-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Trash Talk: On Translating Garbage"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re away until January 6, but we\u2019re reposting some of our favorite pieces from 2019. Enjoy your holiday!<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When we speak of translation in these end-of-days, it is often in the loftiest of tones, as though it were a sacred duty undertaken by devoted adepts prostrating themselves before the altar of language. The self is renounced, the greed for authorship forsworn in service of a greater calling, which is no less than bridging the gaps between the peoples and cultures of the world.<\/p>\n

This is certainly true if you\u2019re translating, say, Don Quixote<\/em>, or Heian-period Japanese poetry, or a new novel by Senegal\u2019s latest rising star. But only a small minority of translators have the skill, opportunity, and financial security required to take on such labors of love. The rest of us, to earn a living wage, will have to make do with whatever garbage we can get. By garbage I mean any or all of the following: corporate-speak, brand manifestos, NGO reports, think tank reports, letters from government agencies replying to American oil companies, letters from government agencies replying to human rights organizations, prose written by self-professed wunderkinds whose trust funds and unearned self-confidence are paying for the translation, and that vilest genre of all, the art text.<\/p>\n

Read more >><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every translator of garbage ends up with their particular niche, and mine is the art text. Literature-adjacent, one might say, but only in the sense that the majority of such texts ooze with the self-satisfaction of the worst literature.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1792,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60329],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-141615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-of-2019"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTrash Talk: On Translating Garbage by Lina Mounzer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Every translator of garbage ends up with their particular niche, and mine is the art text. 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