Lost in Translation

What's lost in translation isn't always just the literal meaning of a word. What's lost can be more the significance, the history, and the culture that makes the word what it is. Words have a beginning, a time when they came into being just like everything else. They also have a history; words tell a story, and have their own identity. Words hold power, truth; they can be twisted and turned around to have one meaning compared to another. They can be used to praise, hurt, comfort, or annoy. Words hold an endless amount of possibility in just a matter of letters strung together. In one language, a word or phrase can hold one meaning, then an entirely different one in another. So what happens when you try to translate a word from one language to another? Do you lose part of that history or meaning? Or do you lose the word itself?

Reading "Translations," its been interesting to see how the original names were changed. I'd seen the two different Irish names on signs before, but never knew how they came to be that way. Reading about Owen translating, either literally or by sound, the names of different places was an interesting experience. I had never imagined that the names would be changed into what they sounded like. But I also think that you do lose part of the original Irish name when translating it into English. You lose the soul of the word almost, the essence of it. Because what it has been for years gives it its own history, a unique past that can't be captured when you change the name. In Italy, for example, saying Firenze brings about a different connotation than just Florence. Firenze has history and a culture unique to the city itself. Florence brings about more of a touristy connotation. Reading the play, I feel that the same could be said with the Anglican names in Ireland.

Shakespeare's lines from "Romeo and Juliet" give a prime example of the English point of view on this when he says, "What's in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet."

Dancing with the Power of the Wind

Dancing with the Power of the Wind. That's what comes to my mind when I read the last passage in "Power." I get an image of Omishto feeling powerful in her self, her decision to go to the old people at Kili, to choose her own life path, and knowing the power that is the wind and her people, while holding them inside of her. Kind of a rambling sentence of all the power images entering my mind, but to me, that's also what the wind is- an intense mix of all that makes up the world and that is making up Omishto at the end of the novel. She has found a new power in herself and has started a new life with the elders. To me, the dance with the new, pure white fan is almost as if Omishto is being reborn. She has gone through experiences she probably never imagined throughout the book, and in the end has come out of it a new person. She is no longer a student, living in her mother's household, taking beatings and being chased after by Herm. Omishto has come out of it all a new person. She has made her own decisions and is confident in them with the end of the book. "it was the old people who saved us" (224), and its the old people she goes to.

Oni. Omishto. "It is a breathing, ceaseless God, a power known and watched over by the panther people. It passes through us, breathed and spoken and immortal. It is what brings us to life" (178). Oni is what saves Omishto and brings her to become who she does at the end of "Power." The dance in the wind with the fan, creating her own wind, shows her own power and her new breath of life through this Oni. She has chosen to become one of the panther people, accept this Oni entirely, and let the power into her as well. Omishto dances to signify her new power. The fan shows her new life/wind/rebirth she is creating all at once with the acceptance of this power, and ultimately her finality in her decision.

The Panther

When I usually think of panthers, the image that comes to mind is often

of Bagheera, the panther character in Disney's The Jungle Book.

Bagheera is wise, protective, respected, and caring-a typical Disney character.

The Panther in Power is seen in a similar light, but not as typically Disney. Here, the

Panther is an animal of utmost respect and value.

Omishto and her family are Taiga Indians of the Panther Clan.

The traditional view of the Panther here is of greatness, awe, fear, and love.

When Ama shoots the panther, she tells Omishto to not let anyone know of it

being sick-it holds that much importance to the people of their clan

that to see it sick is unbearable, painful, and devastating. The Panther,

in their eyes, is much like Mowgli sees Bagheera-a powerful figure, one

to be respected and revered. Omishto doesn't understand why Ama doesn't

want her to tell anyone that the panther she shot was sick, even though it would

help in finding her innocent. When she goes to the Kili Swamp to meet with

the old people, Omishto finally understands how her tribe's elders view the panther,

and the effect of knowing it was sick would have on them. The Panther is not

only the name of these people, it is who they are, and who they have always been.

If the Panther was sick and dying, so is the Panther Clan. Once Omishto realizes

the intense connection her clan really has with the panther, she comes of age

a bit, grows more mature in her understanding of the world and what happened

after the hurricane when she and Ama went out in the woods.

The Power of Nature

In the novel Power, the descriptions of nature are almost spellbinding. The world Hogan describes seems magical, hidden, and wondrous. She captures the essence of a place in her words, using "oni" for wind instead of wind as we know it for one. When we use the word "wind," something is lost from the translation of "oni." She makes you feel as if you're being pulled into another world through the use of "oni" and her description of nature.

There is one place in the world that's had the same effect on me as I feel Omishto has when she's in her boat on the water. When I'm on the beach or walking among the trees on Hilton Head Island, my favorite place in the world, I almost feel like I've entered another universe. The ocean breeze, the waves crashing on the shore, the smell of the salt water, and the overall atmosphere of the island makes me feel like nowhere else has before. I love everything about that island-especially the nature. I feel more at home standing on the beach there than I do sometimes even in my own room. It's almost as if I become a part of the island when I go, but when I leave its worse. I feel as if I leave part of my soul, a piece of my heart behind every time I depart. But it also makes going back even better.

Lucy and Peggy

The relationship between Lucy and Peggy is curious. When trying to think of a word to describe it, somehow curious came into mind. As Lucy says, "We had nothing in common except that we felt at ease in each other's company. From the moment we met we had recognized in each other the same restlessness, the same dissatisfaction with our surroundings, the same skin-doesn't-fit-ness. That was as far as it went"(145). And that is as far as it goes. Peggy is a person Lucy can relate to in this new world, but also remains very different from, and Lucy is the same for Peggy. Neither have met anyone like the other; they make one another curious, as their relationship is. Lucy doesn't rely on Peggy for much besides being a distraction-she's fun, outgoing, different, lives in a world completely unlike her own. They are complete opposites: everything Lucy likes or does is opposite in Peggy. They intrigue each other, provide companionship, and provides Lucy with someone her age to talk to, even if they come from different worlds.

Lucy's relationship with Peggy is good and bad in my mind. Peggy opens Lucy up to new and different experiences in America than those she has with Lewis, Mariah, and the children, but not all are ones she likes. She gives Lucy someone to hang out with and go out with, and try to make sense of her life and her past. Peggy lives with her parents and hates it; Lucy often tells of her mother but her relationship with her mother is different than Peggy's with her parents, who hate anyone not from or affiliated with Ireland. Lucy's relationship with Peggy is good because she does have a different mindset and opens her up to different experiences as she ha with Lewis and Mariah. But the negative aspects are present too. Peggy smokes marijuana and brings Lucy to a party where she meets Paul, the "pervert." Peggy doesn't like reading, children, or her family, who don't have a power over her like Lucy's family does. Lucy's family has so much of a hold over her she can't seem to not think about them quite often. The differences between Peggy and Lucy stand out from the beginning, and don't have much of an effect until the end.

The relationship between Lucy and Peggy, good and bad, seems like a rite of passage, a vital part of adolescence. To have that one friend our guardian figure, parent or Mariah in this case, doesn't exactly approve of, but you keep around anyways. They add a certain spice to life, open you up to new experiences, and help you figure out who you are and want to be. In my experience, who they are is who you don't want to be, and I think the same happens with Lucy.

Lucy and Language

While reading the first section of Jamaica Kincaid's Lucy i began to notice two themes:the first that the main character, who i'm assuming to be named Lucy, is never actually called Lucy, and the second, she is never fully understood. What I'm sure of about the narrator is that she is a teenage girl brought from her home to a new world- new to her in every sense of the word. The weather and season of winter is new; the house she is in; the people she's living with; the room she sleeps in; some of the clothes she wears; the location; the country; the train she rides on; the children she watches. Everything in the world she is living in is new. She doesn't understand winter, or why Mariah is anxious for spring and going to her childhood home. The language used in describing these things to her are not words she knows or concepts she's learned about. 

Language takes another form in Lucy's life-the language she uses. It's different from how the family she is with speaks, and her ideas don't come across as clearly as she assumes they do. There is a language/cultural barrier present which has yet to be broken down. Lucy thinks by telling Lewis and Mariah about a dream she has they will understand it as her accepting them and having them as a big part of her life, but they don't see it that way. The maid doesn't like her for how she talks either. Language is used as one major barrier between her and this new world she's in, and inhibits her understanding of it.

Displacement and Belonging

This past week I had an experience of someone I know feeling displaced when she was with two of her longest and best friends. One of my close "Rome" friends, we'll call her A (she goes to SMC, I just met her on the Rome program), came to me upset about an issue of essentially, displacement. She was feeling left out and somewhat abandoned by her two friends, B and C, for a few reasons, the main one being that they both now attend Notre Dame and not Saint Mary's. One of them transferred at the beginning of this year, and the other one went to Rome with us, and transferred at semester. Seems like a lot going on, but its essential girl drama-I'm sure most of you can keep up :) A was upset because she has been trying to keep close with B and C, and has been succeeding for most of the semester until now. A has been working to keep these friendships because she has known B since the beginning of high school and C since the beginning of her time at SMC, and they were Rome roommates. But now, A feels B and C have been changing their plans and saying they were invited to more exclusive events and parties by their new "friends"-since they're ND girls and not SMC ones. To A, and it would to me too if I had that happen, it hurt A LOT. A feels betrayed, forgotten about, and unloved by two of her best friends, and in a way displaced I think. She doesn't know how this happened or why, especially since these are supposed to be her friends. A bigger issue here is that all three of them have been aligning themselves with stereotypes it seems: A is the SMC girl vs. B and C, the ND girls. How did three friends who were so close get stuck in such a situation?

This situation also led me to make some connections to Woolf's relation of how she wasn't allowed into the library or chapel alone at Oxbridge since she was a woman. A isn't invited to these parties since she's a SMC girl, not an ND one like B and C. 

Displacement can have many meanings, as we discussed at the start of Othello and asked What is displacement? For A, it's feeling out of place with two of her best friends. Often our location and surroundings can change us, affect us, and how we identify ourselves can too. Rome changed me and many of the other girls I was there with. For me, it wasn't anything like a complete personality change, but smaller, yet significant, changes. It seems to be happening once again with B and C attending ND and not SMC. A is noticing a change in who they are, and it hurts when she's not doing the changing too. Place changes us. Displacement can happen even with two of our best friends.