Rebecca of Lost In Books
Rebecca of Lost in Books was kind enough to ask that I write something for her blog while she was away. After getting over the thrill of being asked, I had a hard time figuring out what in the heck to write about. She has been so complimentary of my essays, I wanted to be sure to write something special - something that fits in with her blog.
I also want to thank her for the compliments regarding this post. She is truly a generous and kind person. She is one of many bloggers I’ve met that always make me feel welcome and part of such a wonderful community.
I am pleased to share with you the following which is cross-posted here.
Lost in Translation.
You probably read that and thought of the movie, right? Or maybe that old saying, which in many ways is true.
In my experience, when translating from one language to another, things do get lost along the way. English is my native language, but I’ve always been fascinated by communication – literally. Hence, why I’ve studied French and Spanish; and have dabbled with German and Italian.
One thing was abundantly clear throughout every experience. Something was indeed, inevitably, lost in translation. This is not a mechanical issue as much as it is a cultural one. Many subtleties and meanings are missed if the person translating does not completely understand how to convey an idea that is foreign to their own, and thinks too technically about the result.
You may be wondering why I bring this up. What does this have to do with literature, literacy, and reading?
Modernity has opened the doors to many things; culture benefiting the most. Through art and literature, we are truly a global society. But those cultures require a way to travel so they can be studied, understood, and appreciated.
For those of us who love to read, we learn about others through the art of storytelling, whether it is fiction or non-fiction.
And since there is no global language, it is imperative we have those people within our society who are able to help us comprehend those cultures and all that they have to offer, including (and especially) their nuances.
Do you read translations? If not, why? Did you try once and gave up because you felt lost?
Ask yourself if the story really wasn’t that good. Or maybe you were judging the text against your own cultural definitions. And I admit, there there are some bad translations out there, but the excellent ones far outnumber them.
I prefer the translations of Hispanic and Latino writers such as Laura Esquivel, Carlo Ruiz Zafon, Isabel Allende, and Jose Saramago. However, I will be making an effort to read more Asian authors such as Gao Xingjian and Haruki Murakami.
Another reason I’m writing this essay is because of Martin Riker’s Notes Regarding the Editing of Translated Literature.
Here I learned about the challenges facing translating, editing, and publishing translated works.
Making the best book possible, a book that evokes the spirit and particular energy of the original, has to take precedence over making a book faithful (literal, word for word) to the original.
Translators sometimes worry that steering from a literal word for word translation will “corrupt” the original text. The fact is that a work in translation has already been corrupted by the act of translation itself. The new work, the translated work, is always already an interpretation of the original—unavoidably so.
This is exactly the concern I had about reading these types of novels – at first. But not long into one of my first reads, I discovered I was missing out on quite a bit. These novels, when translated well, open our eyes to new ideas, concepts, and culture. They are a treasure all of us should learn to cherish.
If you don’t read translations, or have never considered it, please, do yourself a favor and try one.
Here are some recommendations to get you started:
Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
Blindness by Jose Saramago
For the more ambitious of you who like modern literature, Kafka On The Shore by Haruki Murakami may be just for you.
Do you dare to take the plunge?
I hope you do.
Our world is immense and diverse. And closer at hand than you think.
Enjoy!
I’ve been reading The Brothers Karamazov and so have been thinking about this topic myself. I love the translators note at the beginning of my copy of this book. I think it goes along really well with this post so I’ll quote it here:
“The best way of handling a translation is about as slippery a business as the best way of living a life, or, for that matter, the best way of writing. In dealing with a piece of literature a translator must hear its tone, judge its language, appreciate its style, and understand its subtleties of meaning, and then as if such passive appreciation were not hard enough, he must recreate all these features as closely as possible in a tongue foreign to the original. In trying to convey the essence of a literary work in another language, he is in the position of a conductor of an orchestra of outlandish instruments asked to perform a classical symphony. He must first adapt the piece to the unfamiliar instruments and then guide his barbarous musicians through it. If he is tone-deaf in the language into which he translates, the effect may be like playing the “Moonlight Sonata” on a tin can.” – Andrew R. MacAndrew
That’s pretty good right? I think it is so true. A lot depends on the translation. That being said, I’m not afraid of translated works. I haven’t read a ton, but I have read good and bad and I think a lot lies on the translation, just as quoted above. It can make or break the book.
Thank you so much for sharing that. It is a wonderful addendum to this post!
translations are tough to read for some people, but I think that begins with the translation itself. Whether the translator understands the nuances of the language and whether they have access to the original author to ensure that the translation accurately conveys the message the artists expects. I recently attended a translations reading in which both the poet and translator were present…and the poet insisted on changing some of the translated lines, that although accurate, did not convey the proper message in English. It’s fascinating.