Writblr question: incorporating another language & to translate or not to translate
For writers who write with a second (or more) language sprinkled in with whatever most of the language is in, do you put translations for readers? I’m of the view that if the character reading it or saying it wouldn’t know what it meant to not put translation (or even to transliterate instead of the other language), but if the character having the conversation understands the language or the narrator is omniscient, I translate it in italics immediately after.
For example:
If Chava and Charlotte are having a conversation, and Chava speaks Hebrew and Charlotte doesn’t, whether or not I translate the line depends on the POV of the narrator.
Scenario 1: Charlotte is telling the story:
“Chava,” I inquired. “Why don’t you go for a run with me?
“אני תפוח אדמה,” Chava said, and for the 27th time this week, I wished I spoke Hebrew.
or
“Chava,” I inquired. “Why don’t you go for a run with me?
“Ah-nee to-po-ach ha-adama,” Chava said, and for the 27th time this week, I wished I spoke Hebrew. What was she talking about, some dude named Adam and her knees?
Scenario 2: Chava is telling the story:
“Chava,” Charlotte inquired. “Why don’t you go for a run with me?
אני תפוח אדמה,” I replied. I am a potato.
Scenario 3: Omniscient Narrator is telling the story:
“Chava,” Charlotte inquired. “Why don’t you go for a run with me?
אני תפוח אדמה,” Chava replied. I am a potato.
The key difference is the information the narrator would have. Charlotte doesn’t speak Hebrew, so how would she be able to tell us, the reader, what Chava said? If we’re viewing the story through Charlotte’s perspective, we need to understand that she thinks Chava is going on about some dude named Adam, not declaring herself a potato.
If Chava is telling the story, to understand her perspective we have to know what she said.
If an omniscient narrator is telling the story, they know what Chava is saying. They’re telling us what they know as an all-knowing or “neutral” (big air quotes) party. It’d be odd if that was the only information they withheld.
I’d love to hear other writers’ thoughts on this though! How do y’all express languages outside of the main language of the text?
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