Taiwan Travelogue

With the exception of books originally written in German or in English, I have to rely on translation in order to access world literature. As someone who grew up with and in one language but who now lives with and in another, I know that translation involves more than merely replacing words. Even languages such as German and English that, in the larger scheme of things, are fairly similar often express ideas very differently. In addition, social contexts and expectations differ significantly. The farther apart two languages are, the higher the stakes of translation can be. As a reader, you will in effect have no direct access to an author’s work any longer. Instead, you will be exposed to an interpretation of it. With translation, the interpretative aspects typically are not discussed widely because the assumption is that a translator will be truthful to the original text. But what does truthfulness mean when two languages and the contexts they operate in are very different? Without…