Saturday 12 October 2013

And they glow like luminescence!!!

Today our second meeting with C2 level project participants took place. We work on Kostas Ouranis' text 'Daybreak on Mount Athos' (1949).

Briefly I will fill you in what our idea is to approach the text. First, it should be mentioned that Ouranis' works have not been translated before and our presentation will be the first attempt ever to interpret his travel descriptions in English.

In our first meeting last Saturday we talked and analysed what translation actually is. As most of the participants are not Literature or Linguistics students, they thought that we should translate the text word by word. This is what they used to do when they tried to comprehend an English context in their first language.

Well, you can imagine their surprise when they realised from the first lines that this is not how it works. The main aim of our project is to spread emotions, meanings, linguistics and language abundance of the text. Their first comments showed that it was a challenging task but I was sure they wouldn't give up! Why? Simply because they love literature!!!

In just two sessions we are almost half way through but we do not just stick to translation. We discuss why they choose specific words over their synonyms. Do they sound better? Do they reveal the underneath meaning? What thoughts, emotions do specific structures evoke?

What I have learnt from them:

They keep surprising me with their talents, their initiative, their suggestions, their ideas! I come out of the meeting much richer in experience, with new perspectives, not to mention the enrichment of my English knowledge! 

Do not forget that it is also my first attempt to spread literature into the world after all!!!

Soon we will upload a video with one of our meetings so that we can present you virually what we do!!!

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