A language is not a country

Julie

Julie

Reader
haha, thanks Liam, Eric,

but with prose, surely more than just story carries over in translation? I know a lot is lost, but I hope(?) that translators are able to maintain some of the formal aesthetics of a text? (Thank you for being a translator!)

I read a lot less poetry in translation because of the problem you mention--it just makes me very skittish because poetry deals so much more intimately with the language itself and specific words, developing more nuanced meanings for words via, like you said, rhythm and other phonic (rather than only figurative) devices. So how do you reconcile the loss there? I have Stephen Mitchell's translation of Rilke's Duino Elegies (the edition is bilingual). I'm trying to teach myself some German now because of Rilke (it goes ploddingly :( )... so I noticed that Mitchell sometimes just inserts phrases or lines that are completely absent in the German and moves lines up and down without any need for it as far as I can tell. I know translation is by no means a one-to-one job, that's why it's so difficult...but is it really okay to be so seemingly cavalier about it? (I'm sorry if I'm putting my foot in my mouth...) Can anyone recommend an English translation of Rilke's stuff that they like?


But not to derail the thread. So then what happens to writers who write in multiple languages? For example Rilke--though he wrote mostly in German, he also began writing poetry in French...he's considered a German writer, but he was obsessed with Paris and Rodin, influenced by Baudelaire, made pilgrimages to Tolstoy, etc, was once given a bit of money by Wittgenstein who wanted to anonymously donate money to "two worthy Austrian writers," found inspiration for the Duino Elegies in Italy, towards the end had Czech citizenship, and wound up living in Switzerland where there are four national languages... you get the point...
 
Last edited:
E

Eric

Former Member
I prefer not to read poetry in translation. But until they invent a serum which I can be injected with, giving me a knowledge of every language in the world, I will have to rely on translations if I want to read Lorca, Pushkin, Dante, Pet?fi, the Edda, Neruda, Catullus, Espriu, and a thousand other poets.

Even when I can read a language quite well, I can miss nuances. So as I have mentioned, it is ideal to have the original on the opposite page to the English translation (i.e. a bilingual or parallel text edition). Then you can at least pick up something of the original sound scheme, while reading the English for the meaning. An ideal compromise.

With regard to those cheeky translators that insert whole phrases, they are relying on the fact that in Britain and the USA poetry translation is regarded as so esoteric that you can get away with blue murder. These arrogant translators know that few of their compatriots can check up on the original. And as they have no scruples, they will dump any word-garbage onto their gullible readers.

As for people writing in several languages, you have to try to identify how the author in question arrived at his or her bi- or multilinguality. There are Catalonians and Finland-Swedes, i.e. those coming from the minority language in the context, who can write in the big language if they have to (i.e. Spanish and Finnish, in this example). How fully bilingual they are in all contexts is another question. Obsession with a country doesn't automatically make someone bilingual.
 
Daniel del Real

Daniel del Real

Moderator
I also have to rely in translations, and it's hard sometimes.
But at the end I prefer to read bad translations than bad originals, no doubt about it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top