Titles

[DWM]

Sometimes the title of a translation differs quite a lot from the title of the original, though in general translators try to preserve the author's intention.

Some examples:

Alain-Fournier - The Great Meaulnes/The Lost Estate
Dostoevsky - The Devils/The Possessed
Gide - The Vatican Cellars/Lafcadio's Adventure
Mann - The Chosen One/The Holy Sinner
Svevo - As a Man Grows Older/Emilio's Carnival

Can anyone think of more of these?

[saliotthomas]

One of the worst is the French translation of Revolutionary road by Richard Yates, Fen?tres Panoramique(Panoramique windows), why on earth would someone pick that title? what does it mean?
And the new title come with the movie "Noces rebelle" which is pathetique but a little bit closer to the story.

[Bubba]

One of the worst is the French translation of Revolutionary road by Richard Yates, Fen?tres Panoramique(Panoramique windows), why on earth would someone pick that title? what does it mean?
And the new title come with the movie "Noces rebelle" which is pathetique but a little bit closer to the story.

Fen?tres panoramiques is really pretty good, Thomas. I haven't read the book, but I hear it's at least partly about life in the American suburbs, where every house has a so-called picture window.

I've always thought the translator who came up with Les Hauts de Hurlevent was a genius.

[DWM]

I suppose the decision regarding the published title of a translation rests finally with the publisher rather than the translator. This obviously has consequences that are both good and bad. :)

[saliotthomas]

Fen?tres panoramiques is really pretty good, Thomas. I haven't read the book, but I hear it's at least partly about life in the American suburbs, where every house has a so-called picture window.


I read the book and i didn't think so, or a leats found it a bit intellectual and pretentious, in short very French.
They could have simply kept the original title which most of the people interested in this kind of litterature would grasp.
They just wanted to show off, imply that they understood the authors more than he did himself.

True for Haut de hurlevent, very good one.

[Daniel del Real]

In Spanish translations there are a lot of them, specially because Spanish translators have their own idea of how Spanish should be spoken, and the rest of Latin America another.

Faulkner's Sound and the Fury is translated in Spain like El Ruido y la Furia (Noise and the Fury)

Some translations of James The Turn of the Screw are titled Otra Vuelta de Tuerca (Another Turn of the Screw)

These are cases from translations to Spanish

From Spanish to another languages, the cases are even worse.

La Regi?n m?s Transparente from Fuentes is translated as Where the Air is Clear. The Most Transparent Region should be a better title.

Don't remember more right now, but I'll post them when I do.

[Stiffelio]

Don't get me started on this issue! I hate whimsically translated titles; whoever makes these decisions should be sued by the author. There are numerous examples. A recent case in point is Herta M?ller's English translation titles: not a single one of them bears any resemblance to the original. When I first got into reading Murakami I started off with Norwegian Wood. Months later I almost bought a Spanish translation of a book called Tokyo Blues, thinking it was a new novel when, in fact, it was the very same Norwegian Wood.

It also happens with movie titles and it's even worse. A classic like The Sound of Music was made into La Novicia Rebelde (The Rebellious Novice).

[Peeping Tom]

La Ciudad y Los Perros by Mario Vargas Llosa. My Spanish is not good, but I believe the literal translation is "City of the Dogs", but the English translation of the novel is The Time of the Hero, which I am currently reading.

[Liam]

It also happens with movie titles and it's even worse.
Ha! In Russia, the popular American TV-show LOST is broadcast/known as To Stay Alive!

[hdw]

Or to quote the Bee Gees, "Stayin' Alive!"

Harry

[Bubba]

I read the book and i didn't think so, or a leats found it a bit intellectual and pretentious, in short very French.
They could have simply kept the original title which most of the people interested in this kind of litterature would grasp.
They just wanted to show off, imply that they understood the authors more than he did himself.

True for Haut de hurlevent, very good one.

On second thought, Thomas, you are right: the French title does sound like the work of a translator unhappy with working in the shadows.

For some reason, the New York literary crowd "rediscovered" Yates's work eight or nine years ago (before even the movie was planned) and pushed it on the rest of the country and even, it seems, much of the reading world. Inexplicable, in my view.

[saliotthomas]

Have you read Yates?

[Bubba]

I started both Revolutionary Road and the stories. Couldn't force myself far into either.

[Daniel del Real]

It also happens with movie titles and it's even worse. A classic like The Sound of Music was made into La Novicia Rebelde (The Rebellious Novice).

Oh, let's not move into movies because we are way worse there. A total shame.


La Ciudad y Los Perros by Mario Vargas Llosa. My Spanish is not good, but I believe the literal translation is "City of the Dogs", but the English translation of the novel is The Time of the Hero, which I am currently reading.

Yeah, City of the Dogs, The City and the Dogs, A Dog's City, all of them would be acceptable. The Time of the Hero, not.

[DWM]

The problem of renamed translations seems to be even worse in languages other than English. I was interested in Daniel del Real's statement that "Spanish translators have their own idea of how Spanish should be spoken, and the rest of Latin America another," which suggests that it's not only the titles that are altered. I wonder how far that's reflected in other languages and cultures? Certainly, there's a big difference between the conventions of American and British dialogue, and that's sometimes used by U.S. publishers (and, less frequently, British ones) to justify a second translation of the same book.

[Howard]

As a translator myself, I know how tricky titles can be to translate. A word or phrase that can be easily translated within a longer text sometimes simply doesn't work taken in isolation, or doesn't convey the right effect. I have on at least one occasion deliberately perpetrated a title that was a long way from the original, and have also, much more frequently, had to give in to publishers who had their own (commercial) reasons for preferring a title that was very different from the original.

Incidentally, The Sound of Music is called La Melodie du Bonheur (The Melody of Happiness) in French, Tutti insieme appassionatamente (All Together with Passion) in Italian, and Meine Lieder meine Traume (My Songs my Dreams) in German!

[Omo]

I can think of many examples, but generally I have nothing against it - wordplays in the title or a reference to a proverb or some other cultural knowlegde the foreign reader has no idea of - how do you want to translate that? Literal translation is often not the best solution.

In German especially Dostoyevsky has a strange translation history.
Crime and Punishment is first and foremost known as Schuld und S?hne, "Fault and Atonement". Ca. 10 or 15 years ago a new translation was published with the literal translation in the title, and there was an outcry in the feuilletons either of appraisal for the new or sentimental sympathy for the old title (+translation). I like both titles, the religious undertone in the former translation suits the book quite well, I think.

His Подросток (literally "someone who is of under (less) growth", i.e. an adolescent) is translated to German as Der J?ngling (the youngling), Werdejahre (years of becoming), Ein Werdender (a -er- becomer, someone who is becoming) and Ein gr?ner Junge (a green boy). Funny about this is that there is a German word which comes very close to the Russian one: why not Der Halbw?chsige (the half-grown)? (I haven't read that book, though, do not know whether that suits.)

[Bubba]

Amerika is another "translated" title that bugs me. Kafka's America isn't, to be sure, the America we Americans know, but literary types love to make Kafka--in many respects a fairly normal young man who had girlfriends and a cushy job--seem weirder than he really is.

I'm quite sure that at least half the English-language readers of Amerika don't realize that Amerika is simply the German rendering of America.

[lionel]

literary types love to make Kafka--in many respects a fairly normal young man who had girlfriends and a cushy job--seem weirder than he really is.

Oh yeah. His father was interested in nothing but making money, and Kafka writes about his father's behavior toward him in his formative years, which he says caused him 'inner damage', and goes on to say that to his father Herrmann he was 'an absolute Nothing'. Sounds really normal, that, no? Herrmann scarred Franz for life. If you don't wanna believe it, then OK, but study Kafka's early life and you find out otherwise.

blog (http://tonyshaw3.blogspot.com)

[Omo]

Amerika is another "translated" title that bugs me. Kafka's America isn't, to be sure, the America we Americans know, but literary types love to make Kafka--in many respects a fairly normal young man who had girlfriends and a cushy job--seem weirder than he really is.

I'm quite sure that at least half the English-language readers of Amerika don't realize that Amerika is simply the German rendering of America.

Hmm, I don't know. Sure, Amerika is the German spelling of America, but the - for an English reader - foreign spelling implies something that is essential in the book: we aren't confronted with a real land but a European projection of America, the land of hope for countless European migrants that is associated with all kind of unrealistic images, which are both cited and mocked by Kafka.

[Bubba]

Oh yeah. His father was interested in nothing but making money, and Kafka writes about his father's behavior toward him in his formative years, which he says caused him 'inner damage', and goes on to say that to his father Herrmann he was 'an absolute Nothing'. Sounds really normal, that, no? Herrmann scarred Franz for life. If you don't wanna believe it, then OK, but study Kafka's early life and you find out otherwise.

blog (http://tonyshaw3.blogspot.com)

Thanks, Lionel, for marshaling, in a single post, all this evidence of Kafka's relative normality. I really couldn't have said it any better myself! I mean, the father more interested in making money than in his kids, the sibling-induced psychological trauma. Sounds really normal indeed, as you so aptly put it.


Hmm, I don't know. Sure, Amerika is the German spelling of America, but the - for an English reader - foreign spelling implies something that is essential in the book: we aren't confronted with a real land but a European projection of America, the land of hope for countless European migrants that is associated with all kind of unrealistic images, which are both cited and mocked by Kafka.

I get your point, but for the great majority of English-language readers, Amerika or Amerikkka has nothing to do with a "European projection of America;" it's an America taken over by native racists and fascists. No one knows that "Amerika" is simply German for "America." This connotation of America with a k may not have been prevalent when the book was first translated, but there was recently a retranslation, about which a big hullabaloo was made. I was disappointed that the opportunity to retranslate the title was not seized.

I also note that the translation of the book into other languages never retains the German title. Again, I think it's almost part of a tacit plot--think of that freakish picture everybody knows--to make Kafka seem stranger, on the surface, at least, than he really is.

[lionel]

Thanks, Lionel, for marshaling, in a single post, all this evidence of Kafka's relative normality. I really couldn't have said it any better myself! I mean, the father more interested in making money than in his kids, the sibling-induced psychological trauma. Sound really normal indeed, as you so aptly put it.

Bubba, your logic is really, really weird!

blog (http://tonyshaw3.blogspot.com)

[Igu Soni]

No one seems to know whether the movie Ladri di Byciclette is The Bycicle Thief or Thieves.

[Raphael Lambach]

Ha! In Russia, the popular American TV-show LOST is broadcast/known as To Stay Alive!


In Brazil it's Lost


Or to quote the Bee Gees, "Stayin' Alive!"

Harry

I laughted too much when I read it...

[Stiffelio]

No one seems to know whether the movie Ladri di Byciclette is The Bycicle Thief or Thieves.

It should be thieves

s. ladro; pl. ladri

[Omo]

I get your point, but for the great majority of English-language readers, Amerika or Amerikkka has nothing to do with a "European projection of America;" it's an America taken over by native racists and fascists. No one knows that "Amerika" is simply German for "America." This connotation of America with a k may not have been prevalent when the book was first translated, but there was recently a retranslation, about which a big hullabaloo was made. I was disappointed that the opportunity to retranslate the title was not seized.

I think even if you do not know that "Amerika" is German for America, or especially then, the strange spelling captures the confusion/bewilderment one experiences when reading this book well - I believe it was a clever decision to leave the title untranslated, alienating something you think you know, just like Kafka does: on the surface everything's "normal", but then comes the abyss. ;)


Again, I think it's almost part of a tacit plot--think of that freakish picture everybody knows--to make Kafka seem stranger, on the surface, at least, than he really is.

Of course Kafka lived a fairly normal life, the father-son quarrel was a big issue back then and many forces he found himself to be subject to can easily be found in many others' lives as well, but we are talking about his inner life, whose fruits are his works, and then we see that due to his sensitivity he suffered more from it than others, not in quality but in degree; and we can be thankful that he found astonishing ways to express this, word it, make it visible and thereby bearable. :)

[peter_d]

John Steinbeck's 'The winter of our discontent' has been translated into Dutch with the incredibly disgusting title of ?Wintertij van tegenzin? Regardless of the fact that it doesn?t mean the same, it?s just sounds very artificial and it does not cover the content of the book. Discontent is not the same here as tegenzin, meaning something like reluctance, similar but not the same.

[hdw]

John Steinbeck's 'The winter of our discontent' has been translated into Dutch with the incredibly disgusting title of ?Wintertij van tegenzin? Regardless of the fact that it doesn?t mean the same, it?s just sounds very artificial and it does not cover the content of the book. Discontent is not the same here as tegenzin, meaning something like reluctance, similar but not the same.

How do Dutch translators of Shakespeare render the original quote:

"Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this son of York"?

"Winter of discontent" has become a terrible clich? in English, referring to a winter period with lots of industrial strife - strikes, etc. Now that Gordon Brown's government is facing trouble from the rail and other unions, journalists are talking about a "spring of discontent", but it doesn't have the same ring.

Harry

[peter_d]

How do Dutch translators of Shakespeare render the original quote:

"Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this son of York"?

"Winter of discontent" has become a terrible clich? in English, referring to a winter period with lots of industrial strife - strikes, etc. Now that Gordon Brown's government is facing trouble from the rail and other unions, journalists are talking about a "spring of discontent", but it doesn't have the same ring.

Harry

I think I was told before that it's a Shakespeare quote, but I forgot. Had to look up how it is translated, but it has been translated in different ways. 'Wintertij van tegenzin' is one of them, so that explains the translation. Nevertheless it still doesn't sound nice to me.

[Bjorn]

"Winter of discontent" has become a terrible clich? in English, referring to a winter period with lots of industrial strife - strikes, etc. Now that Gordon Brown's government is facing trouble from the rail and other unions, journalists are talking about a "spring of discontent", but it doesn't have the same ring.
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b339/beergood/discount_tent_imagelarge.jpg
...sorry.

[hdw]

I think I was told before that it's a Shakespeare quote, but I forgot. Had to look up how it is translated, but it has been translated in different ways. 'Wintertij van tegenzin' is one of them, so that explains the translation. Nevertheless it still doesn't sound nice to me.

How do Dutch translators cope with Shakespeare's pun on "sun" and "son"? Richard is jealous of his brother Edward IV, who like himself is the "son" of the Duke of York, but Edward's heraldic badge is a blazing sun, and to the English people he is the "sun (of York)" which has turned the "winter of discontent" into "glorious summer".

Harry