Humor is the first gift to perish in a foreign language
Humor is the first gift to perish in a foreign language
Volume-2 | Issue-36: Understanding the role of translation in perceiving the world
To the 95 new readers who have joined our Merrative community, welcome! You’ve joined 4431 others who are receiving curated books, articles, podcasts, and short films on interesting themes every single Monday. Help us grow by sharing this newsletter!
“Humor is the first gift to perish in a foreign language.” - Virginia Woolf
Whenever a book gets translated, the very first emotion that gets distorted is anything humorous. What’s funny in one language may sound absurd or offensive in another.
But translations act as a bridge between one’s native culture to those around the world. It’s a great way to understand locals, scale your imagination and get inspiration for your own personal/professional goals.
We would like to dedicate this newsletter to share some amazing recommendations themed around translation as an activity.
Check out the podcasts, short films, and read recommendations around the same.
If you have more read, listen or watch recommendations, feel free to share them with the community as a post.
Lessons To Pin - The Art of War by Sun Tzu
Sharing 5 lessons from ‘Book of the week’ from Monday to Friday. Short emails with lessons and explanations about it, no fuss, no spam.
Reply to recommend a book we should pick up or contribute your lessons from a book you enjoyed!
This week’s read: The Art of War by Sun Tzu - translated by Ralph D. Sawyer
The Art of War is an ancient Chinese military treatise translation dating from the Late Spring and Autumn Period. The work is attributed to the ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu, a master of warfare interpretation.
Lessons from previous week’s book: Range by David Epstein
Discuss
#Reading-Rooms
Here are this week’s scheduled reading sessions. You too can start these discussions, read along on the literature of your choice - could be books, articles, news, poetry, research papers, films, or anything you enjoyed. Simply reply to this email for hosting access!-
- Zero to One by Peter Theil |Wednesday, 6th October 2021 | 9 PM IST | Startups & Book Discussion
- TED Circle about ‘Leading with Curiosity’ How to get better at things you care about by Eduardo Briceño | Thursday, 7th October 2021 | 9 PM IST | TED Circles
- What if Indian states were countries? based on an article by The Print | Friday, 8th October 2021 | 9 PM IST | Politics
- The Immortals of Meluha - Book Discussion |Saturday, 9th October 2021 | 9 PM IST | Book Discussion
- Is radio still relevant in the 21st Century? based on an article by The Hindu | Sunday, 10th October 2021 | 7 PM IST | Technology
Internship Opportunity
Interested students apply to get notified about internship opportunities in the field of content marketing and publishing space.
Open to direct collaboration with institutions.
Do share with friends & family!
Threads
What's the best-translated book you have read in your own mother tongue?
Sharing an article by The Guardian that covers the art, beauty, and challenges of translating foreign language books.
Do read the article and share your thoughts on the discussion points mentioned!
Read
Mansi curates a list of - Top 5 translated books from languages across the world
You too can share your own collections and get them featured on our blog.
If topics like reading, writing, productivity, and sharing a list of curated books/newsletters/articles interest you, then do contribute to our blog as a guest writer. Reply back to this mail for more details.
Listen
Rough Translations - podcast by NPR
Ever wondered how are the things we are discussing being spoken about someplace else in the world? Gregory Warner tells stories that follow familiar conversations into unfamiliar territory. We live in a time when the world seems trivial as people are engulfed in their echo chambers, so here’s a podcast that can take you places.
Watch
Harry Potter and the translator's nightmare | 6 Mins | by Vox Media
A book that is translated in more than 60 languages, ever wondered how the story is being read in Japanese, Spanish or French? Even names like Severus Snape is translated! Here’s a sneak peek into how the original story got affected due to little involvement of the author, assumptions by translators, and ensuring local culture is respected.
Read something awesome?
Join our community of avid readers, curators, and writers to discuss ideas from the news, books, articles across tech, poetry, fiction, business, etc!
