citrin@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU (Wayne Citrin) (10/23/86)
I'm looking for a good book or books on the philosophical and/or literary aspects of translation, particularly the problem of conveying the author's style in a translation. Any recommendations? Thanks. Wayne Citrin (ucbvax!citrin)
rose@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU (Dan Rose) (10/24/86)
In article <16227@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> citrin@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (Wayne Citrin) writes: >I'm looking for a good book or books on the philosophical and/or literary >aspects of translation, particularly the problem of conveying the >author's style in a translation. Any recommendations? Thanks. Douglas R. Hofstadter (of _Godel,_Escher,_Bach_ fame) has talked and written about this. In GEB, he includes translations of Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" into French and German and discusses this. (How do you translate a "nonsense" poem into another language, while preserving the connotations of the words?) Later, he has talked about the difficulties in translating GEB into other languages. In one instance, translators botched an acrostic dialogue -- the first letters of each line were supposed to spell something, but the translator missed this. I believe he mentions some of this in his collection of Scientific American essays, _Metamagical_Themas_. He also is interested in such things as translations between languages which have no distinction between gender and those which do, etc. -- Dan (not Broadway Danny) Rose rose@UCSD
andyb@dartvax.UUCP (Andy Behrens) (10/26/86)
Let me recommend Victor Proetz's "The Astonishment of Words" to anyone
who is interested in the art of translation. Of all the books I own,
it is the one I most enjoy rereading.
Proetz has found translations of (or, in a few cases, has himself
translated) passages from Chaucer, Blake, Coleridge, e.e. cummings, and
a few dozen others. The translations are followed by short essays.
Sometimes Proetz talks about the merits and faults of the translation
and points out details that especially delighted him; sometimes he
discusses the history of the work; sometimes he just lets the
translation stand on its own merit.
I had a hard time choosing a single passage that would give the flavor
of the book. The translation of Pig and Pepper (from Alice's Adventures
in Wonderland) is close to perfect, puns and all, and it's a shame to
leave out
In Xanadu liess Kubla Khan
Der Lust ger"aumigen Dom erstehen,
Wo Alph, das heilige Wasser, rann
Durch H"ohlen ohne Mass und Plan
Zu sonnenloser See....
Maybe you should just buy the book and read it yourself.
The Astonishment of Words:
An Experiment in the Comparison of Languages
Victor Proetz
University of Texas Press (Austin, 1971)
ISBN 0-292-70116-0
Andy Behrens
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RFD 1 Box 116, Union Village, Vt. 05043nobi@mtuxo.UUCP (m.juliar) (10/27/86)
Re: Books on translation wanted Try "On Translation" edited by Reuben A. Brower, Harvard U. Press, 1959. It has essays by 17 translators, including Achilles Fang (I just had to mention that name). It is probably a good collection because Vladimir Nabokov's essay about his translation of Alexandr Pushkin's (sic) "Eugene Onegin" is included. Its title is "The Servile Path." I think the book is out of print. It should be in good libraries or available through second-hand bookstores. Michael Juliar