Translation and A Void.

Today in Class we had received a copy of a students mid term paper that had been translated into various different languages and then back into English. I found this to be extremely interesting to see how it ended up. At first when reading the translated version I found myself rather confused, there were parts that flowed nicely but most of it was choppy and certain words didn't translate correctly back into English. There was a key quote that my group had picked out that when translated gave that quote a whole new meaning. The original spoke of the river being black, frenzied, and incomprehensible, as well as the area surrounding it being "unearthly." When translated this same quote read that Conrads character talks crazy black and incoprehensible and that the area was "supernatural." The idea of the river had disappeared completley and what was left fit the racist undertone of Conrads story perfectly. It was also interesting to see that unearthly translated into supernatural. At first glance those words sounds synonomous however, the word supernatural adds in a whole new dynamic than the word unearthly would have had. I look foward to seeing what other works look like after being translated.