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I knew a translator who worked for the EU high commission as a live translator. I asked her about translating books: "Knowing two cultures and languages in such
by dazzawazza 6y ago
I knew a translator who worked for the EU high commission as a live translator. I asked her about translating books: "Knowing two cultures and languages in such intimate detail that you can know a book and translate it in any meaningful way for the princely sum of ten thousand pounds...no".
She compared it to poetry, you agonise over certain phrases and the thousands of years of history that phrase has and all its cultural meaning and all you've got is "he bonked him on the head".
She conceded that any translation was better than none as there are ideas out there, hidden, that need to spread and are limited only by language and time.
- machello13 6y agoI see your point, but I don't think saying that "any translation is better than none" invalidates criticism of any specific translation. It's still possible for a translation to be better or worse than other translations.
- Taylor_OD 6y agoExactly. Any translation is better than none but a good translation can be better than a poor one.
- dazzawazza 6y agoI guess my point was more that most translations are done very quickly and relatively poorly because the commission paid for translation work is pitiful. Great translations are often labours of love for academics and amateur scholars.