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My view on translations is that if literary luminaries such as Gabriel García Márquez and Vladimir Nabokov both think that the English versions of their work fu

My view on translations is that if literary luminaries such as Gabriel García Márquez and Vladimir Nabokov both think that the English versions of their work fully stand up to the test (which they are both on record as stating), then that is good enough for me. I am not monolingual. I know what it feels like to read in different languages, and here's the thing: The words? The grammar? Easy. You can learn enough to stumble through a newspaper in a matter of months. The culture behind the language? That is what takes decades to acquire, and if you don't have it, I 100% guarantee you will get a more accurate reading of the author's intent in a well-translated work than you ever would lurching your way though the native text.

thombat 5y ago
Slightly related: Tove Jansson (author of the Moomin books) related that the process of working with her English translator on an early book had been revelatory, in exploring what she was actually meaning to say to the extent that she reckoned that by the end the translation was an improvement on the Swedish original.
- abecedarius 5y ago
  That's interesting: I checked out one of the early Moomin books in French translation once (the first chapter or so in the bookstore), and it was strikingly blander than the English version. It was like they were phoning it in. (My French is a second language, but still, I checked the English side by side and it didn't seem to be just me.)
- Baeocystin 5y ago
  Oh, I loved the Moomin books as a child! I read them in English, and the language use was a delight; I didn't even realize they were a translated work until I got older. How fun to learn that a quality translator worked closely with the author to keep the magic alive in a different form.
kingcharles 5y ago
> The culture behind the language? That is what takes decades to acquire, and if you don't have it, I 100% guarantee you will get a more accurate reading of the author's intent in a well-translated work than you ever would lurching your way though the native text. This is definitely true, especially the further a culture is from your own. Japanese culture especially has all sorts of features that will whooosh! over the heads of most people reading those books in translation. It's not that you won't enjoy a book in translation, it's just that you're never getting 100% of what a native will get it from it. We have to just accept that. We don't have enough hours in our lives (right now) to study a language to native level and live in that culture to native level simply to enjoy a book.

thombat 5y ago

Slightly related: Tove Jansson (author of the Moomin books) related that the process of working with her English translator on an early book had been revelatory, in exploring what she was actually meaning to say to the extent that she reckoned that by the end the translation was an improvement on the Swedish original.

abecedarius 5y ago
That's interesting: I checked out one of the early Moomin books in French translation once (the first chapter or so in the bookstore), and it was strikingly blander than the English version. It was like they were phoning it in. (My French is a second language, but still, I checked the English side by side and it didn't seem to be just me.)
Baeocystin 5y ago
Oh, I loved the Moomin books as a child! I read them in English, and the language use was a delight; I didn't even realize they were a translated work until I got older. How fun to learn that a quality translator worked closely with the author to keep the magic alive in a different form.

kingcharles 5y ago

> The culture behind the language? That is what takes decades to acquire, and if you don't have it, I 100% guarantee you will get a more accurate reading of the author's intent in a well-translated work than you ever would lurching your way though the native text. This is definitely true, especially the further a culture is from your own. Japanese culture especially has all sorts of features that will whooosh! over the heads of most people reading those books in translation. It's not that you won't enjoy a book in translation, it's just that you're never getting 100% of what a native will get it from it. We have to just accept that. We don't have enough hours in our lives (right now) to study a language to native level and live in that culture to native level simply to enjoy a book.