---
layout: post
title: "Literal translation and a video-book"
date: 2019-04-06 11:30:25
categories: misc
---

I can hardly believe that it took me more than a year to go from a raw recording
to a proper "video book": narrated (ultra) short story accompanied by related
imagery. Now it is
[here](http://127.0.0.1:43110/1N8zibqog72CCDBDo8jrxU7C6Q8JeVND2Z/?/_posts/2019-04-06-river.md)
(or, if you can't run zeronet, here's
[a proxy](https://z.hex3.cf/1N8zibqog72CCDBDo8jrxU7C6Q8JeVND2Z/?/_posts/2019-04-06-river.md)).
But before you dive in, i want to write a few words about its english
translation.

<cut/>

For a while now i've been an advocate of as direct, literal translation as
possible (without totally compromising reading experience); especially so when
translated version is perceived through subtitles and viewer can hear original
sound (and by the way, i also strongly prefer subs to voice over/dub). There are
two primary reasons for this.

First: every translation adds additional layer of distance to the original,
creates a new work further apart from what author conceived. The more direct
translation is, the more it is *possible* for a reader (especially those having
some familiarity with source language) to get closer to original, even though
some readers may get more distanced perception due to unnaturality of the
language. But the literary translation does not give even a choice.

Second: watching videos with sub translation is a good way to improve language
understanding, and the more direct translation is the easier it is to correlate
original and translation.

And that's about all for this post. Now feel free to go watch what
[i've come up
with](http://127.0.0.1:43110/1N8zibqog72CCDBDo8jrxU7C6Q8JeVND2Z/?/_posts/2019-04-06-river.md).
