Translation?

[sirinrob]

My approach to reading classics is, if I can read it them in the original language I do. Much of the time that is not possible , so I have to rely on translations. This raises some interesting issues in regard to felicity to the original. In translating from one language to another there is an inevitable loss of nuance. The extent of this loss is dependent on several factors - translator's knowledge of original language, knowledge of target language, errors in original ( how do you deal with those?) and errors in translation.

 

I have recently read in translation M Bulgakov's 'A Dead Man's memoir'. The translation was by A Bromfield. I felt he did a good job. I also have the M Gleeney translation of the same work, which in my opinion doesn't work as well. So it appears you have to be careful when selecting which translation to read.

 

Question - given the difficulties alluded to, do you adhere to works written originally in your language(s) or do you brave the world of translations?

[BookJumper]

I avoid translations * - when I have the luxury to do so. Being bilingual Italian and English, brought up in Italy, I stopped reading English and American books in Italian at about the age of 11, which is when I started to realise the extent of the badness of most mass market paperback translations.

 

When I don't have the luxury to do so - alas, my German is pretty distant, my Spanish rather basic, my Russian all but forgotten, my French nonexistent - I rely on reputable publishers: in England, this means Penguin Classics (the ones with the black covers), if all else fails Vintage are also usually good; in Italy I rely solely on a stupidly expensive academic-y imprint called Garzanti whose translations read like a dream: I read Hugo's "Les Miserabl

[sirinrob]

Firstly your position on reading works in translation accords in my view with my own.

 

The fact you are attempting to translate Shakespeare, into I presume Italian, is not a volte face, since there are a sleuth of issues to take into account in that undertaking. This is by no means an exhaustive list, I'm sure you have thought of more, but the ones that spring to mind immediately are stylistic, semantics, semiotics and lexicogical.

 

An additional point relating to my original post is does the reader of a translation have the necessary language skills to understand the translation? A case in point is the title of Peter Schlink's so-called Holocaust novel. The German title is 'Der Vorleser' which means somebody who reads out aloud or to someone. This is correctly rendered in english as 'The Reader'. However the English title is ambigious. The sense it is meant in is someone who reads out, however it can mean someone who reads directly or understands, in a figurative sense , what someone says. (That little section took diving into one English dictionary and 2 German dictionaries to sort out )

[tdaonp]

I read translations when I have to. I am bi-lingual (Dutch and English) but read almost exclusively in English because that language is so much richer and less harsh than Dutch. So when I read a translation of a book, say War and Peace, I read it in English, not Dutch (my mother tongue).

 

It does make a great difference, especially with complex novels, who translated the book. I read War and Peace for the first time in a Wordsworth Classics edition. Translator unknown to me now (I gave that version away). It was a great book but nothing prepared me for the full on force of the book when I re-read it in the translation done by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. Suddenly the book sprung to life and it was an even more forceful experience.

 

So, sadly, I have to read translations (or spend the rest of my life learning Russian, French, German, Japanese and Chinese) but if I read translations I read the English language ones and try to find the best there is.

 

Henk (tdaonp)

[BookJumper]

Further to my earlier post, I've realised an additional method to the madness with which I select translations.

 

Books originally written in romance languages such as French or Spanish I'll only read in Italian - similarities of syntax, vocabulary and musicality make a good translation in Italian read less like a translation (i.e. more natural) than a good translation in English.

 

On the other hand, works originally written in languages bearing little relation to either (such as Russian) I'll read in the language of what country I happen to be in at the time.

[Green_Shoe]

I'm also trying to avoid translations if I am able to.

I study Latin and I can read, for example, Ovid. It is extremely difficult to translate his works. If you translate everything literally - sometimes your text makes no sense. If you try to make a poetical translation, it does make sense but it is a little bit far from the original. This drives me crazy.

I can completely understand why Nabokov wanted to translate his own works only himself...