Blast Course: How to Read a Translation

Instructor: Brad Harmon

How does one read a book that’s been translated? On the one hand, it’s easy: you just start reading. Depending on the book you’re holding, you might not even know it’s a translation. On the other hand, that same book is the result of some of the most complex tasks the human mind can undertake. Yet translation is often talked about in negative terms. Whether it’s a metaphor for miscommunication (“lost in translation”), or a back-handed compliment in a book review (“the translation is so good you don’t even know it’s a translation!”), the idea of translation has unjustly received a bad reputation. But the tide is turning, with translation increasingly seen as its own artform, translators receiving more recognition, and new awards for translated literature being created.

As an introduction to reading in translation, this course has something to offer anyone who reads literature, whether you’re an avid follower of Nobel laureates or you’ve never really thought about it at all. We will consider broad questions such as: How has the meaning of translation changed from the Bible to ChatGPT? Why are some books and authors constantly re-translated while others are ignored? What’s the difference between an author and a translator? We will also spend time focusing on more “hands-on” things, such as comparing different translations (of, for example, a Rilke poem, a bible verse, a Proust sentence, or a Dante verse), reading translator’s notes, analyzing “blurbs,” or critiquing book reviews. The overall goal is to identify, unpack, and undo the many assumptions and rhetorical tropes that plague literary translations, and to become more informed readers of them.