I compared two English translations of the same older novel and the narrator felt like a different person.
One is smoother and modern; the other is stranger, sharper and funnier. Same events, noticeably different personality. It made me stop thinking of translation as just finding equivalent words.
1 reply
It can also go the other way, where a “friendly” translation flattens all the weirdness out. Then the book reads fine and somehow loses its...
It can also go the other way, where a “friendly” translation flattens all the weirdness out. Then the book reads fine and somehow loses its teeth.
That’s exactly what I meant. The sharper version was less easy, but it made the narrator feel more alive to me.
2 replies
That’s one of the best parts of translation, honestly. Two versions can feel like two different narrators because the translator is making c...
That’s one of the best parts of translation, honestly. Two versions can feel like two different narrators because the translator is making choices about tone, rhythm and how strange to let the sentence stay.
I had the same reaction with a poem once. One translation was all smooth polish and the other felt like the poet was standing in the room with their coat on.
I like seeing how much personality lives in punctuation and sentence length too. A good translator is not invisible, they’re choosing a voice.