Stevie B
Current Member
I'm currently reading Robert Musil's dark autobiographical novel The Confusions of Young Torless. Although the novel is set in Austria, it is reading like a British schoolboy novel because the translation by Eithne Wilkins is so chock full of Briticisms. I've never encountered such a jarring translation that seems to so geared to a particular English-speaking audience. I'm not debating the pros and cons of American English or British English, it's just makes more sense to me to aim for English-neutral options (if that term I just made up makes any sense). It's difficult for me, as an American reader, to get the sense of Austrian schoolboys when they're always referring to one another as "chaps" and "lads". I'm sure Brits would find it just as distracting if they called one another "dudes". And it's not just certain terms in Wilkins' translation, its the very distinctive idiomatic expressions that appear every few pages. If I weren't on the road (at a convention in very toasty Fort Lauderdale, Florida ), I'd find myself a different translation.
I'm sure this issue also arises for translators of other languages such as Spanish, French, and Arabic. My question for translators is as follows: Do you typically aim your translations for a particular audience or do you translate in a way that your books can be read by a much wider audience?
I'm sure this issue also arises for translators of other languages such as Spanish, French, and Arabic. My question for translators is as follows: Do you typically aim your translations for a particular audience or do you translate in a way that your books can be read by a much wider audience?