Projects (was "my first translation")

Irina Rempt-Drijfhout wrote:

> I don't think there's any single piece of writing that *all* of us
> would be able to translate comfortably, without culture clash or
> having to warp the language irrevocably out of shape.
>
> But what's wrong with having a collection of translations of
> different pieces? Two or three different translations in each
> language, out of a set of perhaps a dozen originals (not all in
> English), would probably give a good impression of the richness of
> our field. Come to think of it we may already be able to come up with
> something like that from the translation exercises posted recently
> (i.e. since February or so when I re-joined the list); not all of us
> did all of those, only those that seemed to fit.
That seems fine; actually, I really think the most innovative idea
was your relay translation, the results of which I'm eagerly awaiting.
A short poem that would express the different nature of each conlanguage
and conculture.  I hope we do that frequently, or at least make it a
list tradition.  When they all get posted on your webpage, that will
be a real source for people.

> I have a different reason for not wanting to translate the Bible:
> every translation into a language makes the source influence the
> shape of the language (and thereby the culture), and I don't want
> Valdyan culture influenced by Christianity any more than it already
> is because it's built on my own (Christian) ethics and morals.
Well, a lot of the Bible isn't Christian, but I see your point.

Not to worry... The Babel translation exercise is pretty much a thing
of the past.  It's been documented and pored over; I think we should
do something different, and your suggestion is a good one.  Does it
necessarily have to be a translation of something in a natural language?
Could we have a sharing of original essays or poems?

Sally

(btw, Issytra's response to the Charyean dismissal of the Babel
story was entirely tongue-in-cheek... she is a tease, and no more
inclined to support that translation exercise than you are! and for
all the same reasons.)