Sylvia Molloy – “Translation as Queer Practice: A conversation with Sylvia Molloy
On Thursday, February 2nd I attended a speaker for my Spanish class. The talk was called “Translation as Queer Practice: A conversation with Sylvia Molly”. Despite it being a requirement for my spanish class, the discussion took place in english. Sylvia Molloy is a renowned Latin American scholar at New York University, translator, critic, and writer who has explored the issues of translation in text after text of a writing career that itself breaks apart the straightjacket of genres, disciplines, and institutionalized modes of reading. Molloy is fluent in three languages and has translated thousands of documents, but explained how translation is a deviant process. She went through her processes of translating and I found it interesting because I had never really thought in depth about the series of steps it takes to translate. Molloy says she starts by pretending to write in a different language to trick herself, so that the language is “infected” by the other language. She stressed the importance that translation is not a replica, because if it were, it would be repetitive. Instead, translating is an untidy exercise and is not amenable to rules.
I find the topic of translation an interesting one, as a Spanish minor I go back and forth between Spanish and English often. It is frustrating when you cannot figure out the translation between the two languages, and often times you find yourself with a completely different translation than what you started with. The implications of translating can be severe, as we have seen in recent news the differences between people and their languages has caused a lot of tension. Molloy also touched on translation in the past, and how it used to be much more complicated when no one knew each other’s languages and they had to figure out how to communicate. I think in this day and age we take communication for granted, technology being the culprit of most of the ungratefulness that has fostered among us, we have the access and ability to communicate when and almost wherever we want.
I am very sad I was not able to attend this discussion. It sounds absolutely amazing to get to hear Molloy’s experience when translating Spanish to english and vice versa. I myself grew up speaking and learning Spanish and I also find myself having trouble translating between the two languages sometimes. From experience, it is much easier to orally and verbally understand Spanish than it is to actually get the language fluent on your tongue enough to where you have the ability to fluidly translate without even thinking. I love how Molloy said “translation is not a replica, because if it were, it would be repetitive”. When translating you have to take is as an isolated practice. I really wish i could have attended this discussion.