I’m only able to read English but have wondered how often people have read a book in its original language and then read a translated version and noticed that the choice of words/context were translated incorrectly or not as well as they could have been. I read a handful of books by Japanese authors and have had moments often where I feel like the phrasing or dialogue is odd but wasn’t sure if that was due to cultural/language differences. Curious to hear others experiences with this
by noice-smort99
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I thought about this while reading Battle Royale. I didn’t finished the book because the style was just unbearably bad, but I don’t know if it’s the original author’s fault or not.
i am in a ‘book club’ where i read the book in the original and the other person reads it translated. we have had more than one instance of confusion where the word choice completely changed the meaning of what was happening on the page.
translations are difficult. not only do translators need to know the language, they need to have cultural understanding of what they are translating and into what they are translating.
Sometimes a translator will go for the ‘feel’ rather than an accurate translation. I’ve wondered how Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club books have been translated into so many languages. There are so many specific British references eg ‘Waitrose’ and ‘Greg Wallace’ and ‘Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference’.
Ooooh, I took a class on this in college; it was very interesting. It’s a very complex issue, as some ideas exist in certain cultures and not others. Translators are tasked with going as literal as possible, or trying to capture the essence of the author’s statement (imagine translating a figure of speech). I remember really enjoying Heading South, Looking North by Ariel Dorfman, which talked about being caught between two languages and, hence, never really being at home in either of them.
Translating anything is a balance between literal meaning, implied meanings (metaphors don’t translate literally) and creating a readable text. It depends on what the translator’s priorities were. And then you’re presented with the translator’s interpretation of the original. Any translation is imperfect, even great ones.
I read Soul Music by Terry Pratchett in French because I’d heard that the translator for his books was really good (Patrick Couton). I wasn’t disappointed. It wasn’t 100% accurate because you can’t translate wordplay 1:1 from one language to another, but I thought he made good choices and reading the book in French felt a lot like reading it in English.
There’s been times where I’ve read a book in French and someone I know read the English one where I’ve found choices they’ve mentioned a little odd or clumsy but not necessarily inaccurate. The only time I’ve caught actual liberties taken with the text has been really old translations of classics where I guess standards weren’t as high back then.
I wouldn’t think very many people have read the same book in two different languages unless they’re doing it for work (they’re linguists or translators or something like that) – but maybe I’m wrong.
I read game of thrones in english and german at the same time and saw one larger translation error (word missing that changed the meaning to the opposite), otherwise the vibe was lost in some places imo, especially for descriptions of feasts. But I think these things in multi-volume fantasy series are difficult to translate, cause it is not clear in advance what details will be important later, so it makes sense to stay on the safe side and prefer literal translations instead of trying to keep rhymes, alliterations, wordplays, etc.
For me fidelity doesn’t matter, only the beauty of the “new” book created by the translator. I think they even could be better than the original
I read a book in French called ‘frère d’ame’ or literally ‘soul brother’. About a Senegalese soldier in WW1, In English it’s called ‘at night all blood is black’ because the term ‘soul brother’ has a specific meaning. This is just one example of translation not being an exact science, translators essentially have to choose the best fit. To avoid using ‘soul brother’ in the English translation the author went with ‘more-than-brother’ to convey a meaning of deeper brotherhood.
I’m also curious, but I’m too lazy to read the same book twice…maybe one day I will try it. I like Japanese translated novels, but sometimes I drop it when it just feels off and awkward. I assume this is due to the quality of the translation. I’ve considered reading Japanese translated novels in Korean (my second language) instead of English since the languages are closer and perhaps has a more closer translation. Haven’t tested that though. It’s especially hard when there are multiple translation options for a novel.
Sometimes I read a book in its original language to practice that language but have a copy in English (or my native language) at the side to check. It takes forever to read like this of course but it’s so interesting to see how it’s translated, what teh translator changes etc and I think it’s a good study method. I remember in one French book I found a mistake, where the translation actually said the exact opposite of what was written in the original. I checked with native speakers to be sure, it really was a mistake. The translation was a library copy, so I made a (very neat) note in pencil about the mistake and put the actual translation underneath for the next reader, haha.
Sometimes translations are done for meaning. Sometimes they are done to preserve literary devices. In my graduate translation classes, the four of us would come up with ten different translations of a passage
>have had moments often where I feel like the phrasing or dialogue is odd but wasn’t sure if that was due to cultural/language differences.
the dialogue is odd because you are experiencing a different culture. as others have said translation is an eternal struggle between accuracy and localization, and I am very much in the camp of retaining as much accuracy as is reasonable. if i am reading a dialogue between two Japanese kids I don’t want it to read like a conversation between two California kids, and yet some translators will do just that and call it localization. if their dialogue seems strange to me, well then its probably due to the fact that im reading a convo in a different language taking place in a completely different culture on the other side of the world, it SHOULD feel different than the conversations I’m used to. not to say that all translation should feel awkward but I guess my point is that translated works are absolutely gonna feel different than ones in your native language, and they should feel different because they are in fact different, it’s something you should adapt to.
prose is a whole different beast but I still feel the same way about it, I want to experience the author’s thoughts even if it doesn’t come out in flawlessly eloquent English prose. I want the author’s work translated, not adapted.
I’ve not read the same book in 2 languages, but I have read 2 different translations of the same book. My dad had a book that was a collection of short stories by Dostoevsky, and I found I really like the story Notes from Underground. I was surprised at how funny it was, I had always thought Russian literature was serious and boring. Years later, I tried to find a copy online, but that translation lost all the humor. It was super serious and boring. My guess is that the 2nd translation was focused on exactly translating the words, while the 1st translation I had read was about getting the feeling of the text right. I definitely preferred the translation that took some liberties to keep the text interesting over the literal translation.
My favorite translators—like Jennifer Croft, who translates from Polish—manage to somehow maintain a balance between authenticity (to the extent that I can tell in Croft’s case; my Polish is pretty abysmal) and musicality. Especially because I tend to like lyrical writers, I want that lyricism to be present in the translation. I don’t want to read something that’s awkward or clinical, no matter how accurate it may be. I read pretty well in Japanese, and there are some translators from Japanese to English whom I don’t like because, although they are impressive scholars, they flatten the language when they translate.
Translating literature is extremely hard depending on the author.
Authors like JK Rowling are really easy to translate because of the simplicity of theme and prose. I read Harry Potter as a child in Spanish and then again in English and I didn’t notice much difference.
Authors like Gabriel García Márquez are a bitch to translate, because part of his charm is how musical his prose is. Everything he writes feels like a small poem. Translating him to English really hurts the experience.
There are a few well-known examples of translators simply inventing stuff. *Remembrance of Things Past*, for example. Not sure the story, who decided the title should be a line from a Shakespeare sonnet rather than a translation of the French title. Another one is the famous line from Marx, “Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!” Somebody invented the chains. There are no chains in the German text.
I actually got so curious about the translation of the Japanese novels I was reading that I taught myself to read Japanese so I could see for myself, there are some interesting cases in there! The very beginning of Snow Country, for instance, has a few really interesting divergences that I got very caught up in.
The German and the English translation of Stanislaw Lem’s “Fiasco” read like two different books.