Translation essay (Luis)

Literature it’s one of the hardest arts to transcend in. This happens for one simple reason language. To transcend in an art like painting, sculpture or architecture you just have to be good at what you do. This is because those arts are a universal language. No matter what is your native tongue you can understand a painting or a sculpture; hell buildings will always be buildings no matter where you are. But literature is different. To transcend in Literature you have to create a work so amazing that even through a translation people that read you will get the same amazing feeling as reading you in your native language.

Translation is a double-edged sword. While it helps you to share your work with the world it also disappears a part of it. The text’s main essence the one you put in it, the one that makes it amazing will probably disappear. As good as a translator can be he will never be able to be you, to think as you, to tell the story you want to tell. If he could do all this things he would be writing his own amazing works not translating yours. This is why it’s so hard to transcend as a writer. Even if you write the best book in your language it will lose some important part of it when it gets to the rest of the world.

This is why authors might be praised in some parts of the world while be almost neglected in others. A great example of this is Julio Cortazar. He is loved in Hispanic countries. Spanish speaking people say he was one of the best writers in the XX century while he is barely read in any other part in the world. But how did this happen? How can a writer be so loved, so influential, so important in one part of the world and so misunderstood, underrated in the other. The answer is simple… translation destroys Cortazar’s writing style. His superb control and use of the Spanish is lost at the moment he gets translated. Honestly it’s almost as if you were reading two different people, a master of writing in Spanish and a common writer in English. Cortazar’s work looses his essence when it’s translated that’s why he is neglected in English speaking countries. He is simply no the same writer.

At the end of the day works that transcend are the ones that work with translation. This is why so many amazing writers get left along the way and are not talked about in history. This is why you should always read a book in the language the writer wrote it.