A Bunch of Translations

#1: "Gregory Samsa woke from uneasy dreams one morning to find himself changed into a giant bug."
This translation is...
- Direct
-Emotionless
- Simple vocabulary
-Chronological order
- Basic sentence structure
- Lacking detail

#2: "When Gregor Samsa awoke from troubled dreams one morning he found he had been transformed in his bed into an enormous bug."
This translation is...
- Formal
-Descriptive
- Slightly complex sentence structure, longer sentences
- Use of elaborate words - (troubled, enormous)
- Some detail

#3: "As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect."
This translation is...
- Direct
- Slightly complex sentence structure
- Uses more descriptive words for imagery such as insect instead of bug
- Some detail

#4: "One morning, upon awakening from agitated dreams, Gregor Samsa found himself, in his bed, transformed into a monstrous vermin."
- Most descriptive
- Choppy sentence structure (long sentence with a lot of commas)
- Very detailed which created a lot of imagery
-Very terrified tone

Analysis

Word choice, syntax, punctuation, and imagery all have impacts on a reader's interpretation of the text.  In the fourth translation combined all elements to create a very horrified tone.  While all the other translations used bug and insect, this one used monstrous vermin.  This leads to the reader perceiving Gregor's transformation as a much more horrifying experience.  The first translation however lacks very descriptive word choice or complex sentence structure, which causes the translation to be much less effective in conveying the dramatic nature of the situation.  The imagery created in the fourth translation also created a better picture in my mind of what was going on, so I was more connected to the text.  To me, being more connected to the text then means that the author was more effective in communicating their story and meaning.  Therefore, word choice, syntax, punctuation, and imagery can all be altered to effect how a reader will interpret a given text.


This exercise brings up that the difficulty of reading translated texts is that you never truly know for sure what the author's original intention was.  Because of the wide variety of word choice and sentence structure that change from language to language, it is almost impossible to stay directly true of the author's intentions.  An author chooses each word for a specific reason, therefore when it is changed to a synonym, it can greatly affect interpretation.  Word choice can greatly impact and create the tone of the text, so once again, changing a word to it's synonym can then alter the tone and interpretation.  In conclusion, word choice, syntax, punctuation, and imagery all are factors used in creating an author's intended purpose and can change the way a reader interprets the text.

Never Let Me Go Covers

Cover 1:

In the first cover, there is a young girl sitting in a field, looking away from the camera.  Her posture is slightly slumped with her hands on her knees, while she is staring towards the ground.  There are not very bright colors incorporated in the cover, as they all look dulled or toned down.  She has a slight sense of fear or is uncomfortable, given off by her positioning.  Also, her isolationism can aid in the idea that she is simply pondering thoughts.  Her clothing is very modest, which can create a sense of innocence.

Cover 2:

In the second cover, the page is filled with an eerie scene.  There are dark, drastic colors consistently, and an abandoned boat sitting at shore, which gives the reader a feeling of isolation similar to the first cover.  The abandoned boat and eerie colors could emphasize the tragedy in the novel of the kids at Hailsham being abandoned by society and placed in this dark world of theirs.  

Cover 3:

In the third cover, dark colors are used again to create an eerie feel.  Grey, black, and blue are the main colors used, and there is an outline of the human anatomy traced in the background.  Also, the colors mix together for a cloudy effect and the text is in a font to convey a legitimate writing style.  This cover could symbolize how the characters must give their organs to society.  The dark colors accompanying the organs traced could portray how the situation is mysterious and depressing.  Both this cover and the boat cover use gloomy and eerie aspects to communicate the atmosphere of the setting in Never Let Me Go.  

Cover 4:

In the last cover, there is a girl twirling with a plain background and a bright blue dress on.  In this, we see a lot brighter of colors used and a happier tone given off from looking at the cover.  The girl's face is turned away, which could show shyness or running away.  However, since her body positioning appears to be twirling, it is likely that she is facing away due to this and the artist made it this way so her face was hidden.  The purpose of hiding her face is because in the novel, the characters are not meant to be real people, therefore they are considered "faceless" in a way to society.  While the use of a girl as the focal point is similar to the first cover, they differ because this one uses a lot brighter colors than the first, which used dulled colors. 

Deep Analysis of Covers 2 and 3

I chose to further explore covers two and three because they were the darkest and most dramatic covers, so they caught my attention more.  When I first see cover two, I immediately think of a scene from a movie after something traumatic occurred.  In all honesty, I definitely see this in a scene of Sharknado.  For the third cover, I think of Grey's Anatomy, for obvious reasons, and also The Good Doctor.  I think of The Good Doctor because in the show, the main character has visions while brainstorming medical mysteries or surgeries that appear in the form of a blueprint like anatomy.  If I hadn't read the novel, the second cover would make me think it was about a horror romance because of the eerie, isolated tone.  However, now that I've read the novel, I see that the relation to the text this cover has is that it's isolated looks actually reflect the isolationism of Hailsham and how the characters were isolated from society, like how the boat appears isolated on the lake.  For the third cover, I would think it was a medical book if I had no background knowledge.  But with reading, I see that it's relation to the text is that it symbolizes how the characters must donate their organs, and that is their sole purpose in society.  In both covers, the dark colors used convey how the text will be centered around a dark idea; that the kids of Hailsham are isolated from society and used for organ donations until death.  

Because there aren't any people on either cover, it's hard to tell who exactly is being portrayed.  Rather, it appears we are looking from a viewpoint of the Hailsham students.  This is so because they are the ones who feel this isolationism as portrayed in cover two.  Then, the writing on the cover for the third is child-like, as well as dark, meaning it could be from Hailsham students after learning their purpose.  Both of these images spark ideas of the tragedy of the novel.  The tragedy is that there are these kids who have feelings and emotions, yet are isolated and ultimately killed for the good of society.  The eerie tone portrayed by the covers helps to demonstrate how eerie the tragedy is and the focal points of the images convey isolationism and death.  

In my opinion, someone who would make this book would be someone who felt isolated as a child, and they later tried to recover their past as an adult.  This would give them inspiration and would be an explanation for how someone could come up with all the unique points of the book.  The kinds of people who would read this would be...IB kids.  Because it's required.  Also, Hailsham is fairly similar to IB because we're isolated from the rest of the school into a dark and depressing atmosphere that ultimately ends in personal suffering.  IB crafts our brains to such a high level so we can benefit society with our knowledge, however once we do, we die.  Just like Hailsham students. Put in a system for society's benefit only for ultimate death in the following years.