I think translation is pretty fascinating, both in concept and execution!!

You really have to get at the core of your medium to pull it off, and even then, as Murakami mentions, it's still something temporary.

Stories are more than just the code, the frames of celluloid, or the illuminated letters. Like all art it's communication based on a shared understanding.

And like any good conjuror, a writer plays off your preconceptions, your knowledge database.

SO IT'S A PROBLEM when you're suddenly asked to replicate a work of art with entirely different tools for entirely different people. It's like hey, let's hire a guy to redo The Last Supper on a sidewalk...

AND THEN EXPECT IT TO MEAN THE SAME THING.

AS ALWAYS, context is far more important than content.

(FFFF there's a whole discussion I want to have on that regarding violence in stories. Killing someone in Gears of War is v. different from killing someone in The Last of Us.)

(Or compare bad guy deaths in Superman II and Man of Steel, etc. CONTEXT.)

But what really gets me isn't this problem of miscommunication, but all the creative solutions available to us?

Word for word translating doesn't work, clearly. Not only are there cultural subtexts and phrases that become totally lost, but simple things like tone and measure are thrown out the window.

Different sounds evoke different ideas- inherently. MMM sounds more soothing than KACK.

Many cultures have words for Mother that have calming sounds, and in particular, the easy on the ears and on the mouth: Mmm. Also found in meditation...

(Which opens a whole 'nother interesting discussion on the evolution of language and names for things/people/concepts.)

So you have thousands of these micro-transactions in emotion happening without even thinking about it.

How could you possibly do a word for word translation that could achieve the same resonance with your audience?

It's easier between alike languages, sure. You can read Elegance of the Hedgehog and basically get 90% of what was originally evoked.

THERE'S ALSO A FEW INTERESTING ARTICLES on linguistic relativity- how it shapes our social interactions and personal thoughts.

Here's a quickie:
io9.com/5884458/does-the...

I think of it as being similar to “translating” a book to film?

You have to make compromises and craft new solutions to achieve similar resonance. IT CAN BE TOUGH. You can tell the same plot but lose everything else... watchin' you, Watchmen.

If you can't see beyond the limitations of your medium (or onto the freedoms it allows you) then what's the point, link people to the wiki instead.

But even when it's done masterfully, like The Shining, (or say, Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky) you ultimately get an entirely different experience...

So is that really better than trying to do the same thing?! What's the goal of translation then?!

This isn't like saying: WHAT'S THE PERECT WAY TO ASK: DONDE ESTA LA BIBLIOTECA. These are experiences, not data.

And the answer differs depending on whether or not it's a masterpiece/classic or something more modern and less serious.

WELL I guess experiences are data... maybe that wasn't the best phrase to use...

But I think there's an unhealthy notion that certain things have to be immaculately recreated. Then what's the point of recreating?!

All that being said, I wish I could learn Russian... but I'm not the best at learning new languages.