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Shanna & Languages

Of translation, books, languages and me

December 31, 2021

再見,2021

2021年最後一個晚上。雨雨淅淅瀝瀝不停的下著,滴答滴答的雨聲奏著無間斷的旋律,為這一年畫上了悠悠的句點。

新加坡迎來了空調的氣溫,犹如新的季節。大家都說四季是時間流逝最明顯的指標,在全年夏日(加上突如其來的暴風雨)的新加坡,時間好像過得特別快。

一年就這樣過去了。因為疫情的關係,時間的流逝似乎和反覆加強與調降的防疫措施融合一體,在年中的某個時段我已經搞不懂日期了。一轉眼,一個月、三個月就那樣的過去了,跳躍式的來到2021年的最後一個晚上。

這一年是特別的。我逐漸找到了自己的步伐和生活方式。雖然偶爾還是避免不了焦慮,但是在很多方面上找到的前所未有的安定和平靜。世上並無存在完美的決定,有的只有無數的可能,還有必須取捨的部分。

關於夢想,在這一年我的想法也有些改變。以前總覺得夢想一定下來就要往前邁進,不應該輕易放棄。當夢想遇到現實因素的阻攔越變越小時, 總覺得是自己不夠堅定,被現實壓倒了。雖然和自己說“這樣也不錯,也是新的方向,新的機遇”,但有一小部分的我總是鄙視自己,覺得是我退縮了,是我放棄了。

但我現在並不那麼認為。

我沒退縮,也不是放棄。我在成長,從無數次的嘗試、勝利、挫折和失敗中慢慢找到自己,了解自己,然後慢慢的、或是徹底的改變夢想。

20歲的夢想是朝著未來而定的,是想嘗試的新鮮事。肯嘗試,就足矣。然後有些夢想似乎是借用別人的。看著和自己有些共同點的人踏上了某條路,懵懵懂懂的也跟上去,看著看著,在某瞬間似乎也混淆了。到底是自己的夢,還是別人的。

30歲的夢想是經過歲月的磨練,從走過的路漫漫摸索得來的。在人生跌跌撞撞的道路上,更加了解自己想做的、想要的。

每一年我們會更好。

2022年,我來了。

Thoughts Leave a Comment

November 24, 2021

Review: Singa-Pura-Pura

I love speculative fiction for its not-real-but-still-real vibes and the stark contrast of a futuristic world grounded in current reality makes the issues feel even more sombre. Some things in human communities would never change. 

I particularly enjoy spec fiction that are satire or social commentary; a challenge or reimagination of the status quo, steeped in cultural associations or based on a particular society. I’m pretty new to the genre, having (re-)discovered it through a couple of translated Korean spec fiction, so I was super excited to dive into this collection of homegrown Malay speculative fiction. 

I’m terrible at reviewing short stories, because there’s too many and I feel like I’m going to do them an injustice. So I’ll pick out 3 of my favourites: 

Mother Techno: A woman’s conversations with an AI-based voice assistant to communicate with her mother (who only speaks Bahasa) and the worries about her fertility. There’s a twist at the end, and I find it a particularly poignant piece on the pressures on women in society, and intergenerational communication. 

Gold, Paper and Bare Bones: 10,000 points guarantee a comfortable retirement, and that’s the goal that everyone works toward. A blue-collared worker does the same, changing jobs along the way for a better chance to earn more points, but just 50 points shy from his goal, he gets killed in a workplace accident. Makes you wonder what we are really working for. 

Isolated Future #2 MacRitchie Treetops: There’s an abandoned housing estate in the middle of the forest, where a community has now formed. A researcher interviews them on their communication system, built from coexistence with insects in the forest. I love how the story questions the role of efficiency in systems and how the community embrace inefficient activity as a meaningful way to co-exist. 

My favourite quote is also from that story.

A part of me wishes to send a drone or a virtual assistant to run tasks for me (…)So I can unslave myself from undesirable constellations, be completely inefficient and lose myself in whatever wormhole of self-entertainment I’d like to find myself in.

Sounds like a dream. 

Translated literature is rich in cultural nuances and it’s a bridge for me to better understand a different culture or society. I love how certain Bahasa Melayu, Bahasa Indonesia, Arabic terms or phrases in the book, particularly those with cultural associations, are left untranslated and readers are made to either guess the meaning from the context, or to refer to the very helpful glossary at the back. I definitely learnt things from the glossary.

When reading translated fiction, I don’t want everything to be reframed in a way the English reader would comprehend, but rather, I want to actively engage the text and understand the differences. I want to guess, to find out, to read up and to understand. 

As a member of the majority race in Singapore, there are few things that I would struggle to understand. English is the common language, and I could just fall back on Mandarin if the need arises. But reading the book gives me a taste of being in the minority this time, and it also makes me reflect on a lot of things that I’ve probably taken for granted, and my own lack of understanding of Singapore beyond my (Chinese) frame. 

I like it when reading throws up questions beyond the stories and make me think about my identity, perspectives and society at large. A great read, and I wish to see more anthologies of short stories from Singapore.

Can we also take a minute to appreciate the cover?! I love how there’s a page dedicated explaining the illustration and how it incorporates elements in the stories. I had a fun time trying to figure out what’s from where. 

Get yours at Ethos Books. 

Book Recommendations | Reviews, Singapore Literature Leave a Comment

November 23, 2021

[Review] Like Spilled Water

I picked up this book by Jennie Liu because I was intrigued by the title Like Spilled Water, and I immediately thought of the Chinese saying 嫁出去的女儿,泼出去的水, literally translated as “a married daughter is like spilled water”. I wasn’t wrong. 

The story centres around Na, a vocational school student in China’s countryside, when her life is suddenly turned upside down by her younger brother’s death. She travels to the city, where her parents live an extremely frugal life while pouring all their money and energies into her brother’s education. She’s appalled to find that despite being the one with all the opportunities, he took his life with rat poison when he does badly in the national college entrance examination gaokao (高考). But having spent years apart and struggling with jealousy and the unfairness of it all, she finds it hard to grief. Her life falls apart when her mother tells her to stop school and get a job at a metal factory, and caretaker duties of her grieving and drunk father falls on her shoulders. She gets a sudden marriage proposal from her childhood friend, and as she tries to piece together truth behind her brother’s death, she has to decide what she wants for herself. 

It’s refreshing to see English YA novels set in places and cultures that are less familiar to the Anglophone reader. It highlights several key social issues in China and blends them into a riveting read. Issues such as the one child policy, feminism, education & marriage, LGBT+ are discussed through the lens of the Chinese culture. Throughout the novel, the characters’ feeling of being constantly trapped really gets to me, and I keep thinking that if I was born somewhere else or in a different generation, perhaps I would have also gone through the same struggles.

And that sure hits home. 

Book Recommendations | Reviews, English Leave a Comment

October 30, 2021

Review: Love in the Big City

Wow, just wow. There’s something about Love in the Big City that just makes you glued to it and I read it in two sittings (I’m human, I need sleep). It also cured me of my laziness when it comes to writing book reviews. Right after finishing the last page, I feel so compelled to type out jumbled thoughts on why I love love love the book so much, hoping to make some sense of why I’m so attracted to it.

Love in the Big City is Sang Young Park‘s English-language debut. This book has such a magnetic personality, only a translator who is equally cool and charismatic can make it work. I’ve always been captivated by translator Anton Hur‘s voice in his translations, and it just shines through in this book. There are many snarky lines that I love and highlighted in the e-book and gosh, some are just gold.

There’s something about living vicariously through flawed characters that are so open and honest about their thoughts, whether it’s in the narration or in the dialogue. The narrator Mr Park (also sometimes referred to as Mr Young) takes the words out of my mouth sometimes, and I marvel at how he dares to say things that I’ve always thought (but not voice out).

I also love how the book is so raw and real when it comes to families. I don’t know about others, but at least people around me (including myself) don’t openly discuss family and growing up, I felt like I was living in a fantasy world where everyone else’s families are “normal”, for lack of a better word. Mr Park’s relations with his mother truly hit home for me, especially the part about how he truly wants an apology from his mother and that his acute awareness that it’s not going to come.

Beyond the emotional rollercoaster—from the highs of snarky retorts to the lows of breakups and loss—that the novel brings, there are also many important issues nestled within. Youth unemployment, homophobia, alcoholism, to name a few.

One thing I love about ebooks is that it’s easy to see what I’ve highlighted and bookmarked, and this novel contains more highlights that my textbooks.

This is my favorite line in the book.

Because, whatever it was or wasn’t, you were you.

It takes so much for a person to tell that to someone else, and I hope I would one day meet someone who I would say that to.

A couple of other personal favorites.

To me, love is a thing you can’t stop when you’re caught up in it, a brief moment you can escape from only after it turns into the most hideous thing imaginable when you distance yourself from it.

An excess of self-awareness was a disease in itself

There are many many more (snarky) lines I love, but will keep them to myself and for you to discover the gold.

Kudos to Tilted Axis Press who emailed print subscribers with the ebook link 🙂 It’s just so nice to get a chance to read it hot off the press. If not, I would have been hounding my mum (who’s in charge of getting the mail) every day.

I still can’t wait for the physical copy to come and go on the ride once more. Definitely looking forward to seeing more of Park’s work in translation.

Synopsis from Tilted Axis Press

You’re in for a treat with Love in the Big City – energetic, joyful, and moving, this novel depicts both the glittering nighttime world of Seoul and the bleary-eyed morning-after.

matches. He and Jaehee, his female best friend and roommate, frequent nearby bars where they suppress their anxieties about their love lives, families, and money with rounds of soju and freezer-chilled Marlboro Reds. Yet in time even Jaehee settles down, leaving Young alone to care for his ailing mother and find companionship in his relationships with a series of men, including one whose handsomeness is matched by his coldness, and another who might end up being the great love of his life.

Purchase links

Titled Axis Press (UK) | Grove Atlantic (US)

While you are at it, I highly recommend the Tilted Axis yearly subscription. I subscribed to both the 2020 and 2021 editions. I was late in getting the 2020 one, which is kinda great, cos they will send the whole year’s books at one shot. Nothing beats having 6-7 books at your doorstep at one go. But I’m also enjoying having the books trickling one by one as they are published this year 🙂 Love in the Big City is part of the 2021 sub!

Book Recommendations | Reviews, Korean (한국어) Leave a Comment

October 30, 2021

書架

前幾天終於下單買了兩個書架!我的拖延症還真的很嚴重,足足拖了好幾年。但也不完全是因為拖延症,主要也是覺得買書架的錢倒不如買多一些書。雖然聽起來很有道理,但其實是歪理。當我看到書本堆在沙發、地板、櫃子等, 還有每次要用書桌時必須把一堆書搬到地上時,就覺得這個決定是錯的。書本根本沒法分類好,我都忘了我到底有什麼書。

還是買個書架,一家整整齊齊,多好啊。

這還要歸功於我的翻譯導師,因為他隨意的一句話,我當晚就馬上把房裡的兩個書架挪到另一遍,然後火速的把尺寸量好,馬上下單哈哈哈。動力滿分。雖然累個半死,但是還是很有成就感,挪出了位置添購兩個書架!

書架下週送到。我已經開始規劃分類,特別期待大功告成的一刻。終於可以把我最愛的書擺出來。

十多年前開始收集九把刀的書籍,但是一直都把它們放在櫥櫃裡,而且還排成兩排,導致我大多數的時間都忘了它們的存在。現在我要把它們通通擺出來。♡

Thoughts Leave a Comment

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Me.

Just a girl from Singapore who is in love with all things languages. I tweet at @heyimshanna

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