Literary translation theory
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owlectomyThe Scandals of Translation: Towards an Ethics of Difference. By Lawrence Venuti
There's theory, and then there's Theory. The subtitle tells you that this is Theory. I found it unreadable.
Literary Translation, A Practical Guide. By Clifford E. Landers.
Far and away the most practical, as it says. The author has no time at all for theories of "resistance," and to him there is a single correct way to translate a text--in order to have the precisely same effect on the reader of the translation as the original text had. As a handbook, it works very well, but there are no great big ideas, and it doesn't make for exhilarating reading.
The Art of Translation: Kornei Chukovsky's A High Art
A translation from Russian. And oh, how I wish this book had originally been in English. The author is so mean! But reading a translation about the problems of a translation is a slightly bewildering thing, and I can only examine the errors at a distance.
This is essentially a polemic against awful translations, so it's of little educational value. I can say that I needed to hear this:
"I speak here about those translators whose vocabulary is wretchedly impoverished: a foreign word to them has only one lonely little meaning. ... To them a horse is always a horse. Why not a steed, or a stallion, or a mount, or a jumper, or a trotter? A boat is always a boat to them, never a ship, a craft, a canoe, or a scow. ... Why is it that so many translators always write that a man is thin, not lean, spare, emaciated, frail, gaunt, or skinny?"
I can't help but be amused by the author flinging barbs at people I've never heard of:
"Instead of Shelley we are given an unfortunate stutterer, a composer of unreadable doggerel whose meaning we have to guess at as in a charade:
Be it calm,
Blessed thy sleep,
Like those who fell, not ours--through sobs.
Just imagine two hundred pages of poetry translated into such gibberish as this."
I am going to make brownies for the departmental Christmas party. It was a great deal of fun last year. There was a skit.
There's theory, and then there's Theory. The subtitle tells you that this is Theory. I found it unreadable.
Literary Translation, A Practical Guide. By Clifford E. Landers.
Far and away the most practical, as it says. The author has no time at all for theories of "resistance," and to him there is a single correct way to translate a text--in order to have the precisely same effect on the reader of the translation as the original text had. As a handbook, it works very well, but there are no great big ideas, and it doesn't make for exhilarating reading.
The Art of Translation: Kornei Chukovsky's A High Art
A translation from Russian. And oh, how I wish this book had originally been in English. The author is so mean! But reading a translation about the problems of a translation is a slightly bewildering thing, and I can only examine the errors at a distance.
This is essentially a polemic against awful translations, so it's of little educational value. I can say that I needed to hear this:
"I speak here about those translators whose vocabulary is wretchedly impoverished: a foreign word to them has only one lonely little meaning. ... To them a horse is always a horse. Why not a steed, or a stallion, or a mount, or a jumper, or a trotter? A boat is always a boat to them, never a ship, a craft, a canoe, or a scow. ... Why is it that so many translators always write that a man is thin, not lean, spare, emaciated, frail, gaunt, or skinny?"
I can't help but be amused by the author flinging barbs at people I've never heard of:
"Instead of Shelley we are given an unfortunate stutterer, a composer of unreadable doggerel whose meaning we have to guess at as in a charade:
Be it calm,
Blessed thy sleep,
Like those who fell, not ours--through sobs.
Just imagine two hundred pages of poetry translated into such gibberish as this."
I am going to make brownies for the departmental Christmas party. It was a great deal of fun last year. There was a skit.
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