Assignment 9 ( Mariel Hemingway, 2009, Mariel's Kitchen)

Mariel Hadley Hemingway, born on November 22, 1961 in California, is well known American actress. But besides being an actress, she also found herself in writing, which is no wonder since she is a granddaughter of famous writer Ernest Hemingway.

In 2009, she published a cookbook known as Mariel’s Kitchen: Simple Ingredients for a Delicious and Satisfying Life. Filled with exciting and beautiful photographs and easy-to-follow instructions, Mariel’s Kitchen includes seventy-five sensational, doable recipes that are tasty enough to repeat.  With wide set of recipes suitable for every occasion, Mariel’s Kitchen is a new kind of American cookbook designed to help you and all those you cook for eat better , fresher and more delicious foods, day in and day out.

In the excerpt we got as a part of our homework, Mariel talks about the season shift- as cold winter is coming to an end with beautiful spring replacing its place, it is time for some changes on our dining table. She talks about the changes in the nature and brings that feeling into the kitchen.

During the translation I used Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (8^th ed.), Wikipedia.com, Google Images, Marielhemingway.com and the notes from the class. Our task was to translate this excerpt but also to see how difficult translation can be when we have some words characteristic for certain culture: it is a real challenge when it comes to finding corresponding equivalents. Dictionary did not help me a lot since for some types of vegetables and ingredients I had to look up for an image, so for this task, Google Images was of greatest help.

 “ Come springtime, I want to feel new” – the second part was little problematic for translation as I knew that I shouldn’t translate it as …želim da se osećam novo as it didn’t sound as something we would say in our language. After some thinking I decided to translate it as Kad dodje proleće, želim da se osećam drugačije (as she later explains why).

" cress salad " – For me, this was the most interesting word in the whole passage. I have never heard of this type of salad before and I did some research on the Internet. I found out that this type of salad originates from Russia and that there are several corresponding equivalents in our language: kres salata, potočac, etc.

" The watery feel of cucumber " - After a discussion we had in class, we agreed that watery shouldn’t be translated as vodnjikav ili vodenast as it has negative connotation. I decided to translate it Sočan (osvežavajući) ukus krastavca.

" bok choy" - kineski kupus

"tiny curls of new plant life " – I didn’t want to translate it as uvojci as it didn’t sound natural to me (this word is usually related to hair), so I translated it …golicaju jezik svojim mladim listićima.

When I finished my translation I read it two times to see whether it makes sense. I didn’t make any changes. The most difficult part of translation were the names of food but in the end I worked it out. The text was very interesting, however, not easy to translate, so i will grade it 5.   

Assignment 8 ( Heidi W. Durrow, The Girl Who Fell From the Sky)

Heidi W. Durrow, born June 21^st 1969, is an American writer and the author of a novel The Girl Who Fell From the Sky, a novel that brought Heidi Barbara Kingsolver Bellwether Prize for Literature of Social Change (2008).

The Girl Who Fell From the Sky tells the story of Rachel, the daughter of a Danish mother and a black G.I., who becomes the sole survivor of a family tragedy. With her strict African American grandmother as her new guardian, Rachel moves to a mostly black community, where her light brown skin, blue eyes, and beauty bring mixed attention her way. Growing up in the 1980s, she learns to swallow her overwhelming grief and confronts her identity as a biracial young woman in a world that wants to see her as either white or black. The Girl Who Fell From the Sky is a novel that reveals an unfathomable past and explores issues of identity at a time when many people are asking “Must race confine us and define us?”

Before starting my translation I read an excerpt two times. Once I read it, it was not hard to conclude what it was about: Rachel, a little girl, retells the situation in which she found herself one day. Tamika Washington doesn’t like Rachel and constantly pulls her hair and threatens to beat her up. In the second paragraph we find out that people tell Rachel all kinds of staff about black people (she is uncertain whether she is white or black) and she learns that she herself is black. Text is very interesting as we have child as a main character. In order to make the translation as effective as the original, we have to find appropriate equivalents to illustrate the image the author was trying to create.

During the translation I used Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (8^th ed.), Wikipedia.com, HeidiWDurrow.com and the notes from the class. There weren’t many unfamiliar words, those that were, I found in the dictionary. Much bigger problem was adjusting Rachel’s and Tamika’s speech as it needed to look transparent and obvious to the reader that two little girls are talking. Here are some problems that I had:

Mor - upon the first reading I wasn’t sure what this word means. I thought it was the name of her friend or cousin. Fortunately, the notes from the class made me do a little research and I found out that Mor is a Danish word for mother (suddenly everything made sense) so I translated the entire sentence Ni mama nije znala. 

As I already mentioned, Tamika’s speech did cause me a lot of troubles during the translation but I managed to find appropriate equivalents in Serbian and here they are:

“ You think you so cute” – Mis’iš da si mnogo slatka a?

“ I am fixin to kick your ass”  Ima da te prebijem!

“ Dang”  - this was a little bit problematic. Dictionary definition of this word is: a mild swear word used instead of damn. I did not want to translate it as Dodjavola or Prokletstvo as it didn’t sound as something that child would say. So I think that more appropriate translation would be: E svašta!

“ I am light-skinned-ed” This is a good example of how children are speaking. Various things came to my mind as options for this translation: Ja sam belokožac. or  Belpurasta sam.

“ I put all these new facts into the new girl” – I sva ova nova otkrića će da budu deo nove devojčice. or I sve ovo novo će da bude jedna nova devojčica.

Before posting my translation I read everything twice. I didn’t make any changes. I enjoyed translating the text as it was very interesting and I didn’t find it hard at all. Therefore, my final grade would be 3. 

Assignment 7 ( Iain Banks, The Bridge)

The Bridge is a novel written by Scottish author Iain Banks. It was published in 1986. and it represents one of the best Iain’s works. On the surface, The Bridge is a novel about three different protagonists: John Orr, The Barbarian and Alex. The reader is not told his full name but it is hinted to be Alexander Lennox, a troubled man who crashes his car while gazing at the Forth Bridge and goes into a coma. What reader will later realize is that all the characters are the same character, Alexander Lennox, who, while lying in a coma, revisits memories of his life up until the moment of the crash. Mixing realities, the concept of doppelganger, different allusions, etc. don’t make this book a fast paced one but Banks instead offers the reader the chance to literally enter the mind of the character – an opportunity that must not be missed.

Before starting my translation, I read an excerpt two times. It wasn’t hard to conclude what the text is about. We are given a dialogue between Mr John Orr and Mr Lynch. Upon my first reading I realized that the two persons, having a conversation, are from different social class: Mr John being a more sophisticated and educated one and Mr Lynch being a less educated one, perhaps from the lower, working class. The task was to adjust these two dialects, to translate the text in a way that reader realizes that these two persons are two different worlds. While reading, the difference between them needs to be obvious. This made the task a little bit challenging but also interesting.

During the translation I used Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (8^th ed.), Google.com and Wikipedia.com. Dictionary solved all my doubts when it comes to unfamiliar words but I mostly relied on my notes from the class and focused on finding corresponding equivalents.

Lynchy’s part of dialogue caused me a lot of troubles as I tried really hard to illustrate and present him in the way Iain Banks presented him in the original. Here are some problems that I had:

“ Scuse me, pal. New here, aren’t ye”    Izvin’te druže. Nov li si ovde? – I think that word Novajlija is also possible in the 2^nd sentence.

“Nothin’ just bein’ neighbourly. Wondered if there was anythin’ ye wanted”.  Niš’, samo pokušavam da budem ljubazan. Reko da vidim treba li ti što.

“his not-recently-washed face”  ne baš često prano lice or ne-skoro-oprano lice

“ Chucked ye out, just like that, eh?” I tek tako te izbaciše?

“Them doctors” Oni lekari?! or Ti lekari.

Before posting my translation I read it two times; it seemed quite right to me so I didn’t change anything. The text was definitely very interesting and not hard at all so I’ll grade it with 2. 

Assignment 6 ( Marilynne Robinson, Home)

Marilynne Summers Robinson is an American novelist and essayist. She was born in 1943 and grew up in Sandpoint, Idaho.  She has emerged as one of the America’s greatest contemporary novelists, with a career characterized by surprise and singularity. So far, she has written three highly acclaimed novels: Housekeeping (1980), Gilead (2004) and Home (2008).

Home is an unusual exercise: a companion to Gilead, not sequel but sibling, narrating the same, rather uneventful, events as that novel, but in a context of a different family history and from different perspectives.

Home retells Jack Boughton's story from the point of view of his younger sister, Glory, who has reluctantly returned to Gilead at the age of 38 to care for her dying father, a Presbyterian minister and John Ames's best friend. Jack, the family's black sheep, an alcoholic with a dishonourable past, returns for reasons that he will only intimate (they are more fully disclosed in Gilead). Glory has secrets of her own: she was humiliated by a man to whom she thought she was engaged, but who turned out to be married. Home is a novel of secrets: the three Boughtons withhold most of what they are thinking and feeling from each other, as they reside uneasily under the same roof.

Before starting my translation, I read the text twice. It wasn’t hard to conclude what the text is about. We are given a description of the house in which the Boughton family used to live. Children of the Reverend Robert Boughton returned to the house and we see them reviving their memories all over again.  But it is not just a simple description of the house- the house is personified, and from the description we come to conclusion that it is treated as a human being, an important member of the family Boughton, rather than an object.

During the translation I used Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (8^th ed.), Merriam-Webster Online, Google Translate, Wikipedia.com and Guardian.co.uk

Even though the text is not hard to understand, one must be very careful when translating it as the main point is to make the house a living object- reader must get an impression that it is alive in order to realize what that house represents for its inhabitants. Problems that may appear during the translation:

“ Well, it’s a good house” – this is the 1^st sentence in the text. I myself would translate it as “Pa, dobra je to kuća”. What might be confusing is the word Well, which most of us would replace with Serbian equivalent Pa. After the discussion we had in class I think that the more suitable translation would be Dobra je to kuća, znaš.

“ …with a flat face and a flattened roof and peaked brows over the windows”   This is a description of the house which I found little confusing. After the discussion we had in class, it was obvious that the house is, as I already mentioned, personified. It was essential to find Serbian equivalents which won’t spoil the image that the author was trying to create. I translated it as: “…neukrašena, spljoštenog krova i šiljatih lukova iznad prozora nalik na obrve”

“Italianate” The father was probably referring to the style of the house, the way it was built. If that is the case than a proper translation would be “Prava italijanska” or “Italijanski stil gradnje”.

“Such times you had!” Obviously, this sentence can’t be translated literally. I had several solutions: “Eh, kakva su to vremena bila” “Ala ste se lepo provodili” “Bila su to dobra vremena”

Before posting my translation I read it several times to make sure I didn’t make any mistakes and to make sure everything had sense. I didn’t change anything. The notes from the class sure did help me a lot- if it weren’t for them, I might have misunderstood something and translated it differently. As I already mentioned the text is not hard to translate, we did some more complicated texts, so I will grade it with 4.