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Re: CHAT: Hello

From:Irina Rempt <ira@...>
Date:Monday, April 30, 2001, 21:08
On Mon, 30 Apr 2001, Andreas Johansson wrote:

> Irina Rempt wrote:
[the UN declaration of human rights]
> Culturally neutral? Well I guess I agree that the UN declaration > isn't culturally neutral (which's as it should be IMHO - in order > to be acceptable to all it would have to say nothing)
That's true.
> but where to found a text that's culturally neutral? It'd have to > on something that can't possibly construed as having any bearing > whatsoever on any kind of "values".
I don't mind that it expresses values, I just don't want to impose those values on Valdyan (and, by transference, the culture it springs from), for the same reason that I don't want to translate anything from the Bible. It's not the *same* culture, and not even a *compatible* culture.
> But how does a lack of "cultural neutrality" make something bad as > an translation exercise?
Not bad as such, but bad to translate into languages of cultures that clash with the values expressed in it. I was much better off translating the play about the god who lived on the moon, or the text about the people desecrating the temple of Vlami, because that's a frame of mind that Valdyans can get their thinking around.
> Translating, for example, the UN declaration of human rights into > some language surely doesn't mean you agree with its content.
No; but I'm afraid that, because Valdyan has no "counterweight" speakers apart from me, it will be influenced too much by a culture alien to it.
> PS I don't think "heavily biased" is the correct term. It's more of a > mission statement for the democratic-liberal wing of western culture.
Isn't that a heavy bias? Irina -- Varsinen an laynynay, saraz no arlet rastynay. irina@valdyas.org (myself) http://www.valdyas.org/irina/valdyas