The Art of Literary Translation; Literary Translation as Art
The premise of this discussion is the responsibility of the translator: is the translator responsible to the text, the author, himself, or an artistic rendering? This is, of course, the basic “moral” issue of translation. Can/should a translation be skewed to accord with the translator’s concept of “artistic”? What constitutes “art” in various languages and can it be conveyed? Translators sometimes “interpret and improve” (according to a Yiddish saying). Is this a legitimate activity or is it a violation of the work? Do different genres provoke different methods of translating? And what should we do with changing artistic conventions (e.g., rhyme and meter in poetry)? These are the basic questions to be discussed at this panel.