The translation on the wall

Text: an original contemporary exhibition-review-style practice extract.

The exhibition’s welcome panel appeared in two languages. At first I admired the symmetry: equal columns, equal lettering, equal space. Then a visitor beside me pointed to a sentence in the second column. It addressed people arriving here for the first time. The first column spoke of people returning.

The difference was deliberate, a gallery assistant explained. The panel had been written with groups who used the two languages, and they had described different relationships with the place. Translating every word identically would have concealed that distinction. I reread the familiar column. Its generous word we had invited me to imagine a single shared history without asking who could comfortably enter it.

Elsewhere, object labels supplied straightforward translations. The welcome panel did a different job. Its balanced layout held two accounts that did not balance word for word. I still valued the equal lettering, but I stopped treating visual equality as proof that everybody had been welcomed in the same way. The most useful space on the wall was the gap in which two visitors could compare what their columns had said.

Analyse how the writer uses language and structure to interest and engage the reader.

In your answer, consider:

• language features and techniques
• structural techniques
• the effect on the reader.

Support your views with detailed reference to the extract.