Tuesday, March 30, 2010
The Unsung Translators
I recently learned that one of my sister's poems entitled Vocation: Abel Speaks is going to be translated into Russian. This got me thinking about all the books I have read in English that were translated from another language. Books such as One Hundred Years of Solitude, The Brothers Karamazov and Lolita. The first time I paid any attention to the role of the translator was when I read One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. This was the spring 2006 pick in the One Book One Chicago program. I started reading a 1970s translation that I found in my parents' basement (no, I wasn't living there). The book was simply awful, or so I thought. I was having a really tough time getting into it and the language was stilted. Mercifully, I accidentally left the book in a hotel room on a business trip. I then went to my local Chicago Library branch and picked up a copy of the book. This version was translated by a different person. It was like I had picked up a completely different book. The storytelling was engaging and the language was crisp. The light bulb went off in my head: the translation made all the difference. I never realized just how significantly the quality of the translation could impact the final product. It seems obvious in retrospect, but if the translation is well done, one doesn't focus on it. I guess it took a really poor translation for me to appreciate it. Perhaps if the Russians don't like my sister's poem, she can point the finger at someone else.
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Apparently this is true! I'm reading "Loving Frank" about a woman who does translations and this issue came up a lot. Translating isn't simply re-assigning words in another language. One has to understand the soul behind the text, and have the knowledge to translate the feeling and intention behind the words, not just the words themselves. Never thought about that before.
ReplyDeleteGreat, great post, sir! I feel the same about my beloved Rilke's translated works. It really does all depend on the translator.
ReplyDeleteI think you would really enjoy one of my favorite books of 2009, Hunting and Gathering by Anna Gavalda. It is translated from French and just beautiful.
My sister had trouble posting her comments, so I am posting it for her:
ReplyDeleteI've been corresponding with "my Russian translator," who is also translating one of J's poems. I can't imagine the difficult task of translating from English to Russian, the grammar being so different. He asked many questions line by line. Fist he makes a kind of simple prose "translation" in English, then on to verse. The person who undertakes the translation of a story or novel has the logic of the narrative thread to carry him/her along. For poetry, the act of translation is an act of interpretation; the translator becomes the poet of the piece in the second language.