Alexandra Wilson
Professor Daniel McDougall
SLS 4250: Contrastive Text Analysis
Winter 2019
Video,

Description: In groups, we were to work on interpretations for a song within a central theme, checking back with the rest of the class every so often for accuracy and equivalence. At the end of the semester, once the interpretations were complete, we recorded them in the form of a music video and were graded on accuracy of the interpretations to the song's original intent.

The process of finding a translation both Zachary and I were satisfied with was a bit rocky at first, but I was very satisfied with our end product. I enjoyed the opportunity to work with someone I had grown in this program with, sharing ideas back and forth. That portion experience in and of itself would have been worth it to me, but the project held even more value as well. The creative process of translating a song is more complex than what we have experienced as interpreting students so far in my opinion. Working to find translations that not only stuck to the feel of the song and artist, but also captured the intent of the lyrics while being accessible to the Deaf community in sign language was more complicated than I had anticipated. My partner and I utilized a few ASL poetry techniques, specifically favoring 7, 5, and B handshapes throughout. The translation we finally decided on is one that I am satisfied with, but I know as my skills develop, there will likely be aspects I would change looking back. In years to come, I am excited to look back on this project and see how I would potentially approach this translation differently.