Foreign books translated into English

[biodroid]

I have always been weary about books translated into English from other languages. I have avoided Cixin Liu and Andrzej Sapkowski and others I can't name right now because somehow in my mind the book might lose the spark, feeling, impact during translation. Kinda like getting lost in translation? I'm not saying that you have to read Polish and then read the English version to compare, that's why translations exist, but do you get emotional attachment to characters in these translations? Is the world building adequate, is the suspense or thrill still conveyed correctly? Let me know your thoughts fellow Chrons.

Cheerz \m/

 

[Jo Zebedee]

It depends on the translator. Carlos Ruiz Zafron’s books are as natural as if they’d been written in English.

 

[Rodders]

I have read a couple of Russian translations (The Night Watch trilogy by Sergei Lukyanenko and Metro 2033/2034 by Dmitry Glukhovsky). I must say that I enjoyed them a lot, but could loose the thread from time to time.

I want to get the Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu.

 

[farntfar]

I can see your point. It definitely depends on the translation.
It's even more true of poetry or songs where there is more likely to be the use of words with several meanings etc.
But maybe even an imperfect translation is better than no translation at all.

Think about it a bit more historically for a moment.
Would you really prefer not to have the Three Musketeers, Quasimodo or Dante's Inferno.
To have lost all of Jules Verne, Solzhenitsyn, Umberto Eco or even Homer's Iliad.
And dare I say it, the Bible (The King James version passed through Greek and Latin translations before getting to English.)

No I think it's worth the risk.

 

[Vince W]

You have to ask yourself, is the story clear and is it enjoyable? If the answer to both of those is yes, then the translation is good. What more can you ask from a translation?

 

[hitmouse]

Don't write off translated works.

The Cixin Liu translations are excellent. I have also read Stanislaw Lem's Pirx the Pilot in a very good English translation, and Michel Houellebecq's Atomised. Agree about the Carlos Luiz Zafron. Good translation is an art in itself e.g. Anthea Bell who translated Asterix into English.

 

[Anthoney]

I wanted to like The Dark Paladin series by Vasily Mahanenko (Translated from Russian). It just seemed off to me. I powered through the first book book but just couldn't bring myself to read the next one. I have the Witcher books by Andrzej Sapkowski but I haven't jumped it because of my earlier experience. Maybe I try something by Cixin Liu to see if it clear the bad taste from The Dark Paladin.

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

I enjoyed Arthur Waley's translation of Monkey by Wu Ch'Eng-En. Of course I don't know if it lost anything in translation, but I thought the characters were well drawn and the story compelling enough to warrant at least one reread.

 

[picklematrix]

Metro 2033 had some clunky lines here and there, though a lot of people I know love the book. Some even read it due to playing the game.

 

[biodroid]

Wow, thx guys for the great responses, I will definitely have a look in the future. When my dad was a kid (50 years ago) his neighbor was contracted to translate Louis L'Amour's books into Afrikaans in South Africa, it's a form of Dutch, since we had the Dutch colonize our country centuries ago.

 

[Tsujigiri]

Metro 2033 had some clunky lines here and there, though a lot of people I know love the book. Some even read it due to playing the game.

Dmitry (the author) found the translation 'clunky' as well. I felt it added a certain charm to the book, but I am assured that there are a lot of nuances lost to the clumsiness of the translator.

 

[Matteo]

It really does depend on the translation and you could say interpretation.

La plume de ma tante est sur le bureau de mon oncle translates as The pen of my aunt is on the desk of my uncle. But an English speaker would never say it that way. Rather, my aunt's pen is on my uncle's desk. Alternatively, Auntie's pen is on Uncle's desk. Or use a slang word for pen, or desk.

That's an obvious (and old) example, often it's more complex, but it's the skill of the translator to write it in an "appropriate" way. And some languages express ideas, rather than individual words, which makes translating even more of a skill. Unfortunately, when it's not done well, you can often see it (even if you can't speak the original language) and this can spoil the reading experience.
 

 

[Matteo]

To add to the above, a French author might have a character wander into a garage and the mechanic, spotting him, say Monsieur?

A translator could translate that directly as Sir? Or he may decide, probably correctly, that an English mechanic would not be so formal/polite as the French and instead say Yes/yeah?/yes mate? etc.

But then you run into the issue that it's not an English mechanic, but a French one so would Sir? be better? Or indeed, would a translation be needed at all for such a well-known word?

All decisions a good translator has to make.