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A translation should never lose or infuriate the reader because of its inaccuracy. When translating a different language, a translator should hold their own ego and try to be as accurate as possible so the reader can follow the sense of the poem or the story that is being demonstrated in the poem as much as possible. In Weinberger’s 19 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei, Weinberger illustrates when different translators try to express Wang Wei’s poetry in separate distinctive ways that show how some translators should avoid trying too hard to be unique with their translation. Translators should not translate with, “lack of sense” as if, “through a haze of opium reflected in a hundred thimbles of wine” (Weinberger). Rather than try to get too fancy with a translation, maybe stick with clear accuracy as much as possible so it doesn’t sound as if it came from the head of pompous New Critic who refuses to write a particular way.
While translation can always have different meanings and interpretations, Weinberger cleverly tells us that not all translations need to have a twist that takes the reader away from the poem. “A bad translation is the insistent voice of the translator -that is, when one sees no poet and hears only translator speaking” (Weinberger). When the translator decides to go on their trip of egocentric translation, the reader has lost their sense of the poetry and lost the feel of spiturality that is supposed to be felt in Wang Wei’s poetry.
Literary Genres in Translation 