Natasha Wimmer

How to Translate a Sentence: Building Blocks of Translation

Friday, June 21, 2024, 8:30 to 10:00 a.m.

This seminar will take a deep dive into the prose translation process by examining its basic unit: the sentence. Some of the concepts explored will include: word choice (sense, connotation, register etc.); collocations (common word combinations); phrase-making (how to break up a sentence into translatable parts); sentence beginnings and endings; cadence (finding a rhythm, strengthening parallel structure, momentum, comic timing, etc.); sound (matching the original, alliteration); style and tone (stresses, levels of formality, etc.). Throughout, we will consider underlying questions of fidelity and fluency, the translator as deep reader, and the translator as editor. Translation examples and exercises will be from Spanish to English, but rough translations will be provided so that non-Spanish speakers can participate.

Required Reading (in Reader):

Bernofsky, Susan. “Translation and the Art of Revision.” In Translation: Translators on Their Work and What It Means. Edited by Esther Allen and Susan Bernofsky, Columbia UP, 2013, pp. 223-233.