The 4th Forum on Formosan Literature

介紹我在2013年11月3日於第四屆臺灣原住民族文學論壇分享的報告：翻譯垂蜜鳥的訊息。

Last weekend in the 4th Forum on Formosan Literature (November 2 and 3), people were stressing the importance of translation for the sake of promoting Taiwanese indigenous writings to the world. 

Agreed. But do they realize how difficult the job is, besides that translation is never taken seriously (at least in Taiwan) because it means to reproduce much more than to produce only?

In the panel on translation and indigenous literature, I heard opposite viewpoints from two non-indigenous translators. 

One said to make the text intelligible for target language users, i.e. English-speaking readers, she has to intervene and insert the original text either by a deliberate choice of words or by a large number of notes that impede the flow of reading; another said she would rather sacrifice the readers (and has done so) in order to stick to the original text and the author's language. 

In my panel, I said even though I have been translating for Taiwanese indigenous peoples and about Taiwanese indigenous peoples in various occasions since 2005, I find myself very reluctant in translating for the writers because I will not stand in the middle of their communication with the readers. I find the existence of a third soul in that context rather distasteful, especially when the soul is and has its own right to be strong. So I encouraged the writers to write in English themselves. 

Then with a smile my elder and professor, Dr. Paelabang danapan (Puyuma), kindly corrected me. He said, "Yes, you are a strong soul, but you are also a soul that can intervene without eclipsing our presence. You connect us with the world. We need you." Very encouraging; I am grateful. 

In the forum, I presented my reading of Huia Short Stories 10: Contemporary Maori Fiction. My ppt is as followed: