End of the Epidemic

Dear Ms. Mounzer,

After reading your essay about War in Translation: Giving Voice to the Women of Syria I would like to express my emotions and my thoughts through this letter.  Learning about your culture and the way women are treated in Syria; it makes me appreciate the approach our women regardless of where we live now in the United States, are treated much better than other countries in the World. In this essay you talk about translation, to me also sounds like you are projecting your voice. I heard it in every paragraph.  The passion in which you express the difference between translation and meanings and how other perceive the message is very impressive. There were parts of your essay that you wrote about what one word meant and this particular world caught my attention: “Istishhad: To be martyred; to die for a cause. It is a especially difficult word to translate, because it has been so marred by blood and violence, so disfigured by zealotry and malice. It is a word that has been ripped from its roots, those that connect it to something so emblematic of what it means to be human, to be driven always by the twin desires of wishing to know and wishing to be known.”  Very powerful words.

I can imagine how this word could be used in many situations to hurt and/or destroy an individual.  Unfortunately, I don’t really know the true meaning of the word but by you describing it in your essay, makes me think about something done bad and how someone would sacrifice themselves for a cause. It takes a lot of courage to do this or express oneself with actions that could later on hurt the person with consequences they were not expecting.

Another quote that I wanted to comment about was: “Translation is a symbiotic act. Between writer and translator, of course, but also between languages. In becoming its vessel, you carry over something of yourself but also something of the original language, because that is the way that language works.”  It is not just the writer for the reader but rather for general audience or an ongoing conversation. There are expressions that cannot be translated into words.

I speak Spanish fluently and I still find myself in situations while speaking to an English speaking audience or circle of friends and I am not been able to express myself in full capacity; I can tell but the expressions of people’s faces, body language and even ignoring my comment because, they rather not comment about to hurt my feelings or make me feel uncomfortable. I see this in many cases and not just mine.  

Thank you for a great essay and I definitely learned something new to add to my challenging bilingual life.  To be more careful when expressing myself and explore new ways to find words that complete my vocabulary to a much better level.