Bringing ‘war & peace’ into China’s classroom – translation as emotional and affective spaces

This article is based on the author’s experience, teaching translation whereby translation creates emotive and affective spaces, allowing the authors, translator and readers to overcome distances (physical/linguistic) and transcend national borders (geographical/political) so that they engage in imaginary mobility for reflective international solidarity. The translator and authors collaboratively construct alternative emotive and affective spaces, thereby enabling the readers to “travel towards the source.” These alternative spaces of collaboration between the authors and translator allow readers to appreciate the authors’ perspectives, and in turn, respond cognitively and emotionally, thereby establishing intercultural communication for international solidarity. Furthermore, the readers learn to articulate their ideas and emotions in their second language, i.e. English, thus transcending their native linguistic and cultural contexts, allowing both authors and readers to overcome boundaries i.e. “nation-states,” to converge in the “translated space.” This “translated space” gives the authors respite because the translator listened and make the readers aware of war experiences so that they strive toward peace. However, such a “translated space” is constructed not through the authors’ native language i.e. Arabic but English, the colonial language of Palestine, which presents the problem of asymmetrical power relations instigated by translation. This highlights the fact that translation processes do not occur in neutral spaces but are embedded in power relations. This article examines critically, the asymmetrical power relations in this “translated space” of coloniality - that both authors and readers must resort to a third language, a dominant international language, to dialogue with each other.