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The act of translation | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| strossel Triglot Groupie Joined 6483 days ago 47 posts - 48 votes Speaks: English*, Swedish, French Studies: Icelandic, Hungarian | Message 1 of 5 02 November 2007 at 6:20pm | IP Logged |
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I'm simply looking to open a discussion on
the act - the art - of translation I am particularly thinking of literary translation, but would also be interested to hear examples of technical/legal translation. Perhaps some questions and thoughts to get us started: * Is a translator's role merely to act as a conduit, to be 'faithful' to the original author's word in every respect? (Is this even possible, whether between closely related languagues or those more distant from one another; how does the cultural context/context in which the language is used impact on this?) * If a translator is to recreate/rework a novel, what involvement should the author have? To what extent should a translator be permitted to recreate the original work so that it is understood/successful/is of 'equivalent' merit, prestige or quality - in the translated language? * Is a translator a professional, a writer, author, artist, or functionary? * Are translators respected in your country? Are they acknowledged on the cover of novels, or are their names hidden inside the book? Do people consider translated novels to be of high prestige? (added cachet of being foreign, the notion that if someone has bothered to translate the novel it must be of considerable significance/quality) * Have you read a novel in translation that has caused you to think about the act of translation regularly? What about novels written in multiple languages/quoting from other languages: how should this be dealt with in the translated novel? (Here I am thinking of, for example: A Spanish language novel with French quotes. In an English translation, should the quotes be translated? Into what language? Into English? Into German so as to maintain the familiar-yet-not-mutually-intelligible effect of French in Spanish? Is there a different expectation in the first place - did the Spanish author expect all readers to be fluent in French? Perhaps, depending on audience, a translator could expect the same of English readers, and should leave the quotes in French?) * What if the quotes were misquoted? Should they be corrected by the translator? What if something 'universal' is in the original (eg the Lord's Prayer... Sorry for the religious example). Should the translator translate this universal itself, or should they merely insert into the work the commonly accepted form of (eg) the Lord's Prayer in their translation? * Proper nouns with meaning for the story: characters names that have meaning in the original languages; street names. To translate or not to translate? I hope these questions encourage you to share your opinions and experiences of translation. A side note: similar issues have recently been discussed in the PEN discussion paper 'To be translated or not to be' http://www.pen.org/. You can download the paper (free) - interesting reading :) Edited by strossel on 02 November 2007 at 6:22pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6768 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 2 of 5 04 November 2007 at 1:13am | IP Logged |
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Umberto Eco's book Mouse or Rat: Translation as Negotiation covers most of these issues very well.
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| strossel Triglot Groupie Joined 6483 days ago 47 posts - 48 votes Speaks: English*, Swedish, French Studies: Icelandic, Hungarian | Message 3 of 5 04 November 2007 at 2:45am | IP Logged |
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Thanks very much for the reading tip.. it's on my 'to read' list. I'm currently reading The Scandals of Translation by Venuti (who has worked as a translator Italian-English).
I'm not seeking definitive answers to my questions, just thought it might be nice to start a dialogue, thought they might get some members posting their own interesting opinions and experiences :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6272 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 4 of 5 04 November 2007 at 3:30pm | IP Logged |
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I have sometimes bought translations into English, but more often than not thought the translation badly done or flawed, if I knew the original well enough to judge. Edited by William Camden on 04 November 2007 at 3:31pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| apparition Octoglot Senior Member United States Joined 6650 days ago 600 posts - 667 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), French, Arabic (Iraqi), Portuguese, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Pashto | Message 5 of 5 04 November 2007 at 4:31pm | IP Logged |
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So many interesting questions, so little time! I'd like to offer my humble opinions here here, but it will have to wait until sometime next week! Good questions!
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