Translated Fiction

I've read a few books that were translated from their original language into English over the years, but not many. Sometimes there are oddities that occur in translation that make a story difficult to follow, or cultural differences that lead to misunderstanding, or disregard for the importance of certain events. I haven't totally shied away from translated books, but they have been a minimal portion of my reading.

Lately, I have decided t rectify this. This past weekend I got to work in my favorite used bookshop in exchange for a big bag of books. (that I got to pick out, naturally) I picked up a couple of Dostoevsky and 3 by various Asian authors; A Dark Night's Passing; by Naoya Shiga, Dream of the Red Chamber; by Tsao Hsueh-Chin and, last but not least: The Scholars; by Wu Ching-Tzu. Has anyone here read any of these?

If anyone here reads translated books, what do you look for in a traslation? How do you avoid picking up a "bad" translation? How do you think, in general, translations stand up to the originals? I'm just curious what you think.

~Witch

the only advice i can give its to make a note of what editorial houses published the good translations you have read, and stick to those ones.

Thanks!

Until I was twelve and learned English, almost all books I read where translations. I didn't notice any real bad apples in them, but they were children's books, so they're probably easier to translate than, say, a Dostoevsky. Nowadays, I try to read as much in the original language, but I'll still read translations occasionally.

If a book is relatively new, the reviews will usually mention whether the translation is any good.

If a book is a classic, there will often be several translations and discussions here and there about which is better and why, e.g., The Iliad.

Some translators have terrific reputations and are worth knowing about. For instance, William Weaver is a brilliant translator of Italian into English. He worked with Umberto Eco on his books and Eco loved the results.

I can't agree with mr-michel. I've read several translations of Simenon all published by the same house, but the translators varied a lot. I definitely did not like the quality and style of some translations, while others were very true to the French expression, poetic, and atmospheric.

Sometimes you just get lucky. I love Banana Yoshimoto's books, though I know nothing about the translator. They retain a very Japanese flavor.

Banana?

Wow, if that is the authors name it is pretty cool. Banana Yoshimoto... have they written much? I will have to keep my eyes open for their work. Thanks a bunch.

I think I'm going to need more bookshelves.

~Witch

To Lies

Thank you for your take on things. I often wish i were multi-lingual, but alas, English is the only language I can speak or read. I wish they had required a language in High School, I didn't have the drive to learn a language then... of course it would have been most convienient then! Now I start to realize why they say; youth is wasted on the young.

~Witch

Witchchild said:

Wow, if that is the authors name it is pretty cool. Banana Yoshimoto... have they written much? I will have to keep my eyes open for their work. Thanks a bunch.

I think I'm going to need more bookshelves.

~Witch

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She's a young Japanese girl, kinda trendy and very unique writer. The ones I've read are Kitchen, Asleep, and Lizard, but I think she's written others.

I will definately look for her when I next get out.

~Witch

That is, indeed, a terrific name - Banana Yoshimoto.

cultural differences that lead to misunderstanding

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Well, put yourself in the shoes of the translator. Let's say that you have to translate a novel from Japanese to English. What do you do with the setting? Change it from Japan to England or keep it in Japan? What do you do with the legions of cultural references almost every single book contains?

These are choices the translator is faced with, and he's gonna have to make that decision. Either way, people are going to be dismayed. The art is to find the solution that will dismay as few people as possible.

And that's not all - he or she has to make those decisions and write a translation that doesn't read like a translation. It really is a very difficult craft.

Cheers

I wonder how tempting it is for translators to change things to their own taste? For example: I am a very creative person. Even if I did not wish to, I think that I would start to change things within the book that I think would make it better. Not talking about plot changes but minor ascetic changes. Adding words that are not there or removing words or even creating your own sentence in the spirit of the original. I wonder how much that happens and how tempted a translator is to do that? I think to a certain extent it's not possible to NOT do it. What do you think and I am particular interested in your answer Martin

Translators get edited, too, Wabbit, so the chances of adding complete sentences (even if they are 'in the spirit of the source-text') will be rather slim.

However, translators are, by definition, 'forced' to be creative with the language they're translating into - there are huge differences between languages, and it is the translator's job to bend the language he's translating into (the goal-language) so that it perfectly fits the mould the author of the original novel created. Therefore there will always be differences between the source- and the goal-text, such as (among many, many other things) tiny things added for clarification, or details left out for grammatical coherence.

It's not as easy as it may seem at first sight.

Cheers

NO! Does not sound easy at all. Sounds extreemly difficult. I think I prefer that there is more bending of words and grammar to keep the "spirit" of that the writer intended. I would rather that than they stick slavishly to the text and loose it's spirit.

Yup, that's the entire trick.

Cheers

anyone remind this?

"The original title of this book was 'Jimmy James, Capitalist Lion Tamer' but I see now that it's... 'Jimmy James, Macho Business Donkey Wrestler'... you know what it is... I had the book translated in to Japanese then back in again into English. Macho Business Donkey Wrestler... well there you go... it's got kind of a ring to it don't it? Anyway, I wanted to read from chapter three... which is the story of my first rise to financial prominence... I had a small house of brokerage on Wall Street... many days no business come to my hut... my hut... but Jimmy has fear? A thousand times no. I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey strong bowels were girded with strength like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo... dung.
...Glorious sunset of my heart was fading. Soon the super karate monkey death car would park in my space. But Jimmy has fancy plans... and pants to match. The monkey clown horrible karate round and yummy like cute small baby chick would beat the donkey.

News Radio - great show!

Cheers

cultural misunderstandings

Martin said:

That is, indeed, a terrific name - Banana Yoshimoto.

Well, put yourself in the shoes of the translator. Let's say that you have to translate a novel from Japanese to English. What do you do with the setting? Change it from Japan to England or keep it in Japan? What do you do with the legions of cultural references almost every single book contains?

Cheers

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I was thinking more of how it is taken for granted that, say, a woman would throw herself onto her husbands funeral pyre in a particular country under particular circumstances... the original work might not bother to explain that, it's taken for granted. But just say most English speakers don't know that.... and they read a story where a husband and wife don't get along, maybe he beats her. We'd think; "Hey, he died, she's free to have her own life now!" And then she imolates herself. That could be weird. Or much much subtler things, ettiquette, for example, or very formal language, a power differential we just don't see or something. The kinds of things where you lose just LAYERS of meanings... I'm not saying there's a great way to fix this... Or even that it needs to be fixed. It's just one of the things that got in my way in reading works translated into English.

~Witch

mr_michel said:

anyone remind this?

"The original title of this book was 'Jimmy James, Capitalist Lion Tamer' but I see now that it's... 'Jimmy James, Macho Business Donkey Wrestler'... you know what it is... I had the book translated in to Japanese then back in again into English. Macho Business Donkey Wrestler... well there you go... it's got kind of a ring to it don't it? Anyway, I wanted to read from chapter three... which is the story of my first rise to financial prominence... I had a small house of brokerage on Wall Street... many days no business come to my hut... my hut... but Jimmy has fear? A thousand times no. I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey strong bowels were girded with strength like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo... dung.
...Glorious sunset of my heart was fading. Soon the super karate monkey death car would park in my space. But Jimmy has fancy plans... and pants to match. The monkey clown horrible karate round and yummy like cute small baby chick would beat the donkey.

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OMG! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!! So funny! Thank you so much.

~Witch