Writing prompt #11: MULTILINGUAL TEXTS

Good morning, Everyone!

I’d like to address Catherine Yu’s question from last week’s craft thread:

“I am wondering how to let foreign words be part of the electricity of the environment when it is a new cultural setting for a character. When is it okay not to translate the phrases? Is there a way to blend two languages together so we get a sense of the character's in-between status of the world they are in?”

Context is everything when it comes to using multiple languages in your work. How and where you insert another language can immeasurably enrich a story, give it texture, and underpin culture. To quote Baldwin: “Language is the most vivid and crucial key to identity. It reveals the private identity, and connects one with, or divorces one from, the larger, public, or communal identity.”

I like to think about language in musical terms. Is what you’re including (or considering including) contributing to the subtle rhythms and syncopations of the text, the emotionality and/or dislocation of the characters? Then YES, definitely harness its energies. Personally, I don’t think it’s necessary to translate much if the music—however dissonant or confusing—is there.

If your story is taking place in Spanish, for example, but we’re reading it in English, a translation is already underway. Or perhaps, as Catherine Yu suggested, your characters are in a new cultural environment and not fluent in the local language? What do they hear, or think they’re hearing? How does this affect their sense of displacement, state of mind, identity, self-expression?

YOUR PROMPT: Write a scene in English (or largely in English) that’s actually taking place in another language. How can you “translate” the scene so that readers are experiencing it in the language of origin? Feel free to include the original language without translation or apology—or italics.

Enjoy!

Abrazos,

Cristina

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