A book that I would type out, or even write out by hand, would be one of Joseph Kessel’s.
After reading Les Cavaliers (The Horsemen) in English, I could find no other translations at the university library network, so I ended up reading them in French when I could barely even read Harry Potter.
The language and the descriptions and the entry into other cultures (Afghanistan, Russia, Syria…) are so good that it was like opening my eyes under water, or even discovering that I could breathe under water.
As soon as I get to my computer, I’m going to look up that book and write you a little more. I’m in the car! I was really excited hearing about this book!
I am interested in translation, not in the wonderfully creative or romantic aspects that shine through in your prose, but in the nuts and bolts - the linguistics of translation. It is always fascinating when the same book has been translated multiple times. Recently I’ve stumbled onto a new aspect - comparing translations into different languages, especially, again, when multiple translations exist. Suddenly the linguistic issues come into very clear focus. How are complex structures translated into different languages with very different syntaxes AND very different traditions of translation? Translations into Chinese and Japanese can have a very different flavour from the original - and from each other. I had never particularly thought of this before but it’s very interesting.
It is very interesting! I think I might have told you this before, but one of my interests is in Chinese poetry in Japanese translation--which is often so different --and to my min d so much more pleasing from the English versions. It gets at something: not just the characters but a lyrical approach to nature that maybe both cultures share and that I love so much!
Speaking off the top my head, I suspect that English translations of Chinese poetry are still trapped to some extent in Imagism. Images are so much easier to capture and “carry over” (translate) than sentence structures. Japanese, on the other hand, is heavily indebted to Chinese classical culture and does not have the same problems rendering background concepts. On the other hand, I would also wonder whether Japanese translations don’t suffer from the dead hand of <i>kanbun</i>….
I don't think they do, though I have suspected the Japanese version are more saturated in emotion than I have felt in the originals.... this is what has been so fun about the Taiga drama, so much Chinese culture is being shown through the depiction of Genji and Murasaki's influences. I have loved the show.
To backtrack a little, I suspect that translations of Chinese poetry into English, French, German, perhaps even Russian, would share many similarities. On the other hand, translations into Korean, Japanese, and maybe even Vietnamese, would all benefit from the shared cultural background. But the syntax of Chinese on the one hand and Korean/Japanese on the other, are quite different. Would this have an influence on their literary quality?
I love to play around between the translations, doing "back translation," which is something you could so really well, unlike me, having a strong understanding of Chinese! But from Chinese to Japanese and then back to English and then.....
I’m reading an edition of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess with an into by Adeline Yen Meh. When she was growing up in Shanghai, her classmate and friend lent her the book:
“I read A Little Princess over and over, keeping it so long that Wu Chun-mei became impatient and demanded its return. Reluctant to relinquish my new-found treasure, I begged to keep it for another two weeks. Laboriously and doggedly, I copied the book word for word into two exercise books during this grace period, committed parts of it to memory, and slept with it under my pillow until the manuscript became tattered and lost.”
Oh, and concerning the push to have translators’ names made more visible, yesterday I was searching for another translation of the same book. Many sites breathlessly promote the original author without telling you who the translator was. But the worst was a site by Penguin, which listed a translation by X, but when you clicked on the link the very cover of the book made it clear that the translator was actually Y. It is amazing how cavalier the booksellers are.
Wow! I love your insights about translation here. And I'm adding those novels to my to-read list!
A book that I would type out, or even write out by hand, would be one of Joseph Kessel’s.
After reading Les Cavaliers (The Horsemen) in English, I could find no other translations at the university library network, so I ended up reading them in French when I could barely even read Harry Potter.
The language and the descriptions and the entry into other cultures (Afghanistan, Russia, Syria…) are so good that it was like opening my eyes under water, or even discovering that I could breathe under water.
As soon as I get to my computer, I’m going to look up that book and write you a little more. I’m in the car! I was really excited hearing about this book!
The "en garde Jennifer Croft" cracks me up every time!
:)
I am interested in translation, not in the wonderfully creative or romantic aspects that shine through in your prose, but in the nuts and bolts - the linguistics of translation. It is always fascinating when the same book has been translated multiple times. Recently I’ve stumbled onto a new aspect - comparing translations into different languages, especially, again, when multiple translations exist. Suddenly the linguistic issues come into very clear focus. How are complex structures translated into different languages with very different syntaxes AND very different traditions of translation? Translations into Chinese and Japanese can have a very different flavour from the original - and from each other. I had never particularly thought of this before but it’s very interesting.
It is very interesting! I think I might have told you this before, but one of my interests is in Chinese poetry in Japanese translation--which is often so different --and to my min d so much more pleasing from the English versions. It gets at something: not just the characters but a lyrical approach to nature that maybe both cultures share and that I love so much!
Speaking off the top my head, I suspect that English translations of Chinese poetry are still trapped to some extent in Imagism. Images are so much easier to capture and “carry over” (translate) than sentence structures. Japanese, on the other hand, is heavily indebted to Chinese classical culture and does not have the same problems rendering background concepts. On the other hand, I would also wonder whether Japanese translations don’t suffer from the dead hand of <i>kanbun</i>….
I don't think they do, though I have suspected the Japanese version are more saturated in emotion than I have felt in the originals.... this is what has been so fun about the Taiga drama, so much Chinese culture is being shown through the depiction of Genji and Murasaki's influences. I have loved the show.
To backtrack a little, I suspect that translations of Chinese poetry into English, French, German, perhaps even Russian, would share many similarities. On the other hand, translations into Korean, Japanese, and maybe even Vietnamese, would all benefit from the shared cultural background. But the syntax of Chinese on the one hand and Korean/Japanese on the other, are quite different. Would this have an influence on their literary quality?
I love to play around between the translations, doing "back translation," which is something you could so really well, unlike me, having a strong understanding of Chinese! But from Chinese to Japanese and then back to English and then.....
I’m reading an edition of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess with an into by Adeline Yen Meh. When she was growing up in Shanghai, her classmate and friend lent her the book:
“I read A Little Princess over and over, keeping it so long that Wu Chun-mei became impatient and demanded its return. Reluctant to relinquish my new-found treasure, I begged to keep it for another two weeks. Laboriously and doggedly, I copied the book word for word into two exercise books during this grace period, committed parts of it to memory, and slept with it under my pillow until the manuscript became tattered and lost.”
Oh, and concerning the push to have translators’ names made more visible, yesterday I was searching for another translation of the same book. Many sites breathlessly promote the original author without telling you who the translator was. But the worst was a site by Penguin, which listed a translation by X, but when you clicked on the link the very cover of the book made it clear that the translator was actually Y. It is amazing how cavalier the booksellers are.
I totally agree. It is terrible, really.