Books Quote by Katie Kitamura
“Translated literature can be fascinating. There's something so intriguing about reading the text second hand - a piece of prose that has already been through an extra filter, another consciousness, in the guise of the translator. Some of my favorite writers who have written in English were doing so without English being their first language, so there's a sense of distance or of distortion there, too. Conrad. Nabokov. These writers were employing English in interesting ways.”
About This Quote
Reading translations reveals a layered consciousness: the original author, the translator, and the reader each add interpretation, creating distance and distortion that can be artistically enriching.
In simple terms: Translations are a dialogue of minds.
Key Takeaway
Mediated texts offer fresh perspectives.
Themes
translation
literature
language
culture
Mood
curious
introspective
Type
literary
analytical
When to use this quote
- studying foreign novels
- reading bilingual editions
- analyzing literary adaptation
Key Concepts
intertextuality
cognitive mediation
Practical Applications
- compare original and translated passages
- explore translator’s notes
Questions to Reflect On
- How does a translator’s voice shape meaning?
- When does distance enhance or diminish a work?
A Different Perspective
Reliance on translation may obscure original nuance.
![“There [DreamTigers by Jorge Luis Borges] were these little fablesque things, you know, dream tigers, beautiful, beautiful pieces that when you read them had the power of a long piece, but they were prose, and they had the power of poetry, in that the last line wasn't the end, it was a…” quote by Sandra Cisneros](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/873/sandra-cisneros-862_beautiful_there-dreamtigers-by-jorge-luis-borges-w_1879835.jpg)
