Reading

In the first semester, I had a class focusing on translating exercises. We had three assignments that contained different diary-like excerpts from Adrian Mole, Nick Twisp and Bridget Johnson. The goal was to translate the English text into Czech. 

I did not have any trouble reading it or translating it, but I haven't translated correctly certain phrases where I needed the cultural insight. 

Words like "fishface" or a song named "The Birdie Song" were hard to translate into Czech, because there are no Czech examples and I had to pause to think of some word that would match the meaning and intensity while also matching the style of the text. 

Where I had a real issue was with the phrase "telegram from the Queen". When I read that I knew that there would be a different meaning than just a telegram. But after going through the internet I did not find any suitable answer, so I did not translate it properly. Later in the class forum, I learned that the correct meaning would be that the Queen had sent a formal congratulation to those who lived longer than one hundred years. 

While I was satisfied with my translation and with the fact I did not have any trouble reading the text, I couldn't find the correct translation or meaning to that phrase.

Another assignment in the first semester was to pick a text in English, take its Czech translation and then make an analysis of it. I picked a poem from Edgar Allan Poe called The Raven.

I was surprised that I understood the original work much better than the Czech translation. The Czech translation from Vítězslav Nezval, which was publicized in 1927, had many Czech archaisms that took a lot more researching than words I did not understand in the original and also occurred more. The whole translation had strangely structured sentences to match the rhythmicity of the original. 

There were some words, such as surcease,  in the original from Edgar Allan Poe that I couldn't understand, but It did not take long to find their meaning even if they were in metaphorical parts. I was surprised that the Czech version is so different from today's speech while the original is close to modern poets. 

I am content with the fact I could understand a poem in English since I have problem with understanding metaphorical and abstract poems in my native language. It motivated me to read more of Edgar Allan Poe's work I tried to read in Czech. I admired him as a father of horror, but now that I know I am able to read his poems better than Czech ones, I can read more of his poems while practising my reading comprehension.