Translators Bring Syaman Rapongan’s Tao World to English Readers
In a new conversation with Asymptote, translators Darryl Sterk and Kyle Shernuk discussed the challenges of rendering Syaman Rapongan’s Tao-inflected prose for English readers. Their remarks highlight not only the difficulty of carrying over rhythm, neologism, and oral tradition, but also the growing role of translation in introducing Indigenous Taiwanese writing to a wider audience.
A Tao writer reaches English readers
Syaman Rapongan, an acclaimed Tao writer who lives on Pongso no Tao, or Orchid Island, has long been a major literary voice for Tao culture. Two of his books, *Eyes of the Ocean* and *Eyes of the Sky*, are now available in English from Columbia University Press, bringing a body of work shaped by island life, diving, canoe carving, and cultural advocacy into a new reading public.
In an interview published by *Asymptote*, the translators of those books, Darryl Sterk and Kyle Shernuk, described the larger stakes of the project: not simply moving words from one language to another, but deciding how much cultural specificity English can hold without flattening the source text. Their discussion offers a glimpse into how contemporary translation works when the writing is deeply embedded in Indigenous history, oral tradition, and the linguistic textures of Taiwan.