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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| siomotteikiru Senior Member Zaire Joined 6358 days ago 102 posts - 242 votes  | Message 257 of 489 03 August 2007 at 3:57am | IP Logged |
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Who’s a translator? A guy who wants to make some money at the expense of the author.
Who’s a publisher? A guy who wants to make big money at the expense of the author and the translator. Some authors want to make some money at the expense of the reader. Some of the authors write ad maiorem Dei gloriam. Some of them are the only ones who write really well. Money is the most important goal both for the translator and the publisher. Love of literature is a contradiction in terms for them. No wonder they cheat. At OUR expense, literature lovers. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Zhuangzi Nonaglot Language Program Publisher Senior Member Canada lingq.com Joined 7025 days ago 646 posts - 688 votes Speaks: English*, French, Japanese, Swedish, Mandarin, Cantonese, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Russian | Message 258 of 489 03 August 2007 at 8:40pm | IP Logged |
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Long before I could read Russian I enjoyed reading Russian novels in translation. Many is the work I have read in translation, and I still do for languages that I cannot read. I respect good translators. Publishers, book distributors and bookstore owners all provide useful functions.
I can walk into a bookstore and find works from all over the world, translated into my language. This enriches my life. As to what constitutes good literature or good writing, that is for people to decide for themselves. We would be far worse off if we had a culture commissar deciding what constitutes good literature, and how much income should be earned by authors, translators, publishers and book sellers. The market will decide. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| kinoko Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6633 days ago 103 posts - 109 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, Japanese, Spanish Studies: German | Message 259 of 489 03 August 2007 at 10:10pm | IP Logged |
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Who’s a translator? A guy who wants to make some money at the expense of the author.
Who’s a publisher? A guy who wants to make big money at the expense of the author and the translator. Some authors want to make some money at the expense of the reader. Some of the authors write ad maiorem Dei gloriam. Some of them are the only ones who write really well. Money is the most important goal both for the translator and the publisher. Love of literature is a contradiction in terms for them. No wonder they cheat. At OUR expense, literature lovers. Your statements sometimes are really absurd. If no publisher existed we and you would have never read most of books. If no publisher existed writers would never be able to make a living. If no translator existed people would never be able to read books in other than their own language. Nobody can master all the languages of the world let alone to a level necessary for reading a novel. Thus translation is necessary to enjoy literature in most of the cases. I can't believe I'm even writing such an obvious thing on a language forum, but I found your remarks offensive towards two categories (to which I don't belong, just to make it clear) whose work is vital in fields of education and culture in general. Money is not their goal. It's a job you know. One of those noble activities impling preparation and hard work in order to eat you dish of pasta in the end of the day and support you family. I guess, I hope, you have a job too and receive some money for doing it, I guess there's nothing wrong with that. The real shame would be if the only way to receive a wage was with activities unrelated with culture. If that was the case then few people indeed would be able to dedicate their time and proficiency to those fields. As obvious as it gets... 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7202 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 260 of 489 03 August 2007 at 11:38pm | IP Logged |
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I think her point is that sometimes the translator does not translate the work as faithfully as we might like. The publisher, whom we might hope would hold the translator to a high standard, may cut corners to save money, such as having another person review the accuracy of the translation. The point isn't that they shouldn't make a buck, but rather that at times making the buck trumps doing work of the quality that someone would do purely for love of literature and the desire to communicate the original authors ideas as clearly and accurately as possible.
If you don't do a side by side comparison of the translation and the original work, you may be unaware of the liberties the translator has taken. One final word in support of what siomotteikiru said earlier. Do you know that the American video rental retailer Blockbuster has "cut" movies? That is to say, they are censored. If you wonder why everyone was raving about a movie and you didn't think the video you rented was so great, it may be more than the movie hall experience that you are missing. I have been extremely disappointed to rent a DVD that I saw in the movie theater only to find that the most powerful scene had been removed. The scene involved neither sex nor violence. After serious questioning, the manager of the Blockbuster store admitted that their movies are censored because they are "a family store". He suggested I check out NetFlix if I wanted to see uncut movies. Hopefully NetFlix won't end up being owned by the same conglomeration and decide they need to filter what we see as well. Edited by luke on 03 August 2007 at 11:51pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| FSI Senior Member United States Joined 6356 days ago 550 posts - 590 votes Speaks: English* | Message 261 of 489 03 August 2007 at 11:41pm | IP Logged |
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Speaking of film censorship, the difference between Léon and The Professional is (to paraphrase Twain) akin to the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| siomotteikiru Senior Member Zaire Joined 6358 days ago 102 posts - 242 votes | Message 262 of 489 04 August 2007 at 12:25am | IP Logged |
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Sure, it is very respectable, to make a living, I mean.
As to my job: I’m a cleaner, I kill stupidity. As to translators: I wouldn’t say I would kill all of them, but I would send to hell the majority. As to publishers: Their place is in a museum. By the way, there are three kinds of people: 1. they’ve read “The Karamazov Brothers” 2. they haven’t read it yet 3. they will never read it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Eve Triglot Groupie United States Joined 6672 days ago 67 posts - 67 votes Speaks: Russian*, English, Spanish | Message 263 of 489 04 August 2007 at 6:24am | IP Logged |
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Siomotteikiru, why you have to be so snobby?
It is a pretty friendly forum and a lot of people come here to get some help in learning new languages but some of your posts getting to the points of being offensive and snobby without a reason. In this forum we might have different definition of "kinds of people" 1. they've studied a foreign language 2. they haven't studied it yet. 3. they will never study a foreign language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6906 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 264 of 489 04 August 2007 at 12:28pm | IP Logged |
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This got me thinking. Even if all I have is "bad" translations, that must be better than nothing, right? How can I know if a translation is "bad", especially in the beginning stages? Edited by jeff_lindqvist on 04 August 2007 at 12:32pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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