Born in the Blood: On Native American Translation (Native Literatures of the Americas and Indigenous World Literatures)

Since Europeans first encountered Native Americans, problems relating to language and text translation have been an issue. Translators needed to create the tools for translation, such as dictionaries, still a difficult undertaking today. Although the fact that many Native languages do not share even the same structures or classes of words as European languages has always made translation difficult, translating cultural values and perceptions into the idiom of another culture renders the process even more difficult. In Born in the Blood , noted translator and writer Brian Swann gathers some of the foremost scholars in the field of Native American translation to address the many and varied problems and concerns surrounding the process of translating Native American languages and texts. The essays in this collection address such important questions as, what should be translated? how should it be translated? who should do translation? and even, should the translation of Native literature be done at all? This volume also includes translations of songs and stories. Should Translation Work Take Place? : Ethical Questions Concerning The Translation Of First Nations Languages / Carrie Dyck -- Reading A Dictionary : How Passamaquoddy Language Translates Concepts Of Physical And Social Space / Robert M. Leavitt -- Translating Time : A Dialogue On Hopi Experiences Of The Past / Chip Colwell-chanthaphonh And Stewart B. Koyiyumptewa -- Hopi Place Value : Translating A Landscape / Peter M. Whiteley -- Related-language Translation : Naskapi And East Cree / Bill Jancewicz -- Performative Translation And Oral Curation : Ti-jean/chezan In Beaverland / Amber Ridington And Robin Ridington -- Translation And Censorship Of Native American Oral Literature / William M. Clements -- In The Words Of Powhatan : Translation Across Space And Time For The New World / Blair A. Rudes -- Ethnopoetic Translation In Relation To Audio, Video, And New Media Representations / Robin Ridington [and Others] -- Translating Algonquian Oral Texts / Julie Brittain And Marguerite Mackenzie -- Translating The Boundary Between Life And Death In O'odham Devil Songs / David L. Kozak With David I. Lopez -- Revisiting Haida Cradle-song / Frederick H. White -- Translating Tense And Aspect In Tlingit Narratives / Richard L. Dauenhauer And Nora Marks Dauenhauer -- Translating Performance In The Written Text : Verse Structure In Dakota And Hocák / Lynn Burley -- Toward Literature : Preservation Of Artistic Effects In Choctaw Texts / Marcia Haag -- Translating An Esoteric Idiom : The Case Of Aztec Poetry / John Bierhorst -- Translating Context And Situation : William Strachey And Powhatan's Scorneful Song / William M. Clements -- A Life In Translation / Richard J. Preston -- Memories Of Translation : Looking For The Right Words / M. Terry Thompson And Laurence C. Thompson. Edited And With An Introduction By Brian Swann. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.