Babel

by R.F. Kuang

she asked all her questions, even the benign ones,

‘Why don’t you finish that drink?’

He’s making him Drink!

Real life is messy, scary, and uncertain.’

there exists no one-to-one correlation between words or even concepts from one language to another.

Language is not like maths. And even maths differs depending on the language*

We ought not merely translate each word on its own, but must rather evoke the sense of how they fit the whole of the passage.

Translating word-for-word is simply inadequate.’

distortion is inevitable. The question is how to distort with deliberation.’

But no one complained. They loved it too.

Honestly, I’d love it, too

Nouns could be verbs when they felt like it.

He’s got the personality of a wet towel: damp, and he clings.’

Letty knows how to read!

they became the colours of Robin’s life,

They needed each other because they had no one else.

Ramy seemed particularly determined to provoke her, to dismantle her every assertion.

I would do the same

she went out of her way to befriend everyone in the faculty.

Honestly, this could be me!

‘Well, I’d like to appreciate the ambience—’

Moi

but a native whose belonging could not possibly be questioned or revoked.

‘People always throw it around in reference to the high- and well-born. But what’s it actually mean? Does it just mean that you’re very wealthy?’

‘It’s not the company, it’s the ennui,’

Do you dream in languages other than English?’

I do

You don’t know how much of her behaviour is dictated by fear.’

an act of translation is then necessarily always an act of betrayal?’

‘Something has to pay for your stipends.’

ª

because no perfect translations are possible.’

So the history of the word does not describe just a change in language, but a change in an entire social order.’

anything could influence a language, from the consumption habits of the rich and worldly to the so-called vulgar utterances of the poor and wretched.

English did not just borrow words from other languages; it was stuffed to the brim with foreign influences, a Frankenstein vernacular. And Robin found it incredible, how this country, whose citizens prided themselves so much on being better than the rest of the world, could not make it through an afternoon tea without borrowed goods.

I never want to forget.’

You’re just like me