Wednesday 14 January 2015

Living in a Multilingual World (The One About Translation)

You have laughed or you have cried. You have perhaps indulged in hours of cogitation, your thoughts strongly interosculating and contaminating each other giving birth to random ideas which will only find a logical existence after even more deep reflection. Or maybe you have chosen the easy, accessible text, the one that helps you “unwind” and forget about modern life’s constant demands. Reading is like that, challenging or fun, or challenging and fun. Fiction is the epitome of this process, the semi- or pseudo-real world created for us, readers, whose key we might obtain at the beginning, middle or end of the book, according to the author’s wishes.

What is then, fiction in translation?

It is all of the above, plus an intrinsic search in the writer’s mind. It is the attempt to return to what happened before the first word was typed or handwritten on the page. Translation, and I mean literary ones, is not just a direct transposition from original text to target language. It is rather a more subtle process in which the translator’s own life experience comes into play through her/his interpretation of the work at hand.

The key to the world made for us. Will the translator make our passage easier or harder?

I have never translated a work of fiction officially. I have translated short fiction texts for family and friends, chiefly to throw some light on the subject matter. But, translating a whole book? No, I do not think I have that capacity. I am not selling myself short here; I just think that translating fiction works at a whole different level, almost superhuman level.

Sometimes I read a book in the original language it was written (mainly Spanish and French, although I just bought four novels in German by the same Austrian author, which means I’ll be going back to the Teutonic lexicon soon) and I think of someone who might like it, too. Then, I realise that it is quite likely they will read the book in translation and this poses a problem. What if the translation is not good? Will the book have the same effect on her/him?

The best translations I have read in my life reach all the way back to the pre-written language that gave the book its foundations and core. I have often mentioned here my devotion to the work of the Czech writer, Milan Kundera. It only dawned on me a few years ago when reading his novel Immortality that I have always read Kundera in translation, be it from Czech to Spanish, or Czech to English, or French (he has written a few short novels in that language, the result of living in France for several years) to English. Yet, I know that if I were to read him in the original Czech (impossible, as I know that I will never learn that language) the magical effect Kundera’s always had on me would still manifest itself.

Literary works that are based on a word-for-word translation are poor and rob the reader of the pleasure of reading. Even technical texts must be injected with some oomph every now and then. I remember years ago reading a book by the Chilean author Isabel Allende in the original Spanish and an English translation after and having mixed feelings about the outcome. If the act of writing fiction is the need to tell a story, the impulse to let the world know that this alternative reality must be known, then, if the translator fails to give us a believable version of this story, she or he will be validating the old Italian saying “traduttore, traditore” (translator, traitor). What the translator will be betraying is not just the mere transferral of ideas, syntax and grammar from the original language to the “host” language, but also the author’s life experience.

Whenever we are touched by a novel or a collection of short stories which was originally written in another language and which we are now reading in translation, let us pause for a second and think of the process. Let us place ourselves in the role of that translator and let us travel with her or him all the way back to the moment when the story was first conceived by the author. The feelings, emotions and situations that generated the desire to write those lines. Those lines that might have made us laugh or cry.

© 2015

Next Post: “Sunday Mornings: Coffee, Reflections and Music”, to be published on Sunday 18th January at 10am (GMT)

22 comments:

  1. It's thorny, this issue of reading in translation. I doubt my Spanish will every be good enough to read Allende in translation (now there's something to aim for ...?). My book group read some Camus in translation, and we all had slightly different editions, which made huge differences to the meaning - it meant an interesting discussion about translation but didn't help with discussing the book. And I have a friend who is a translator - and she works with poets. The mind boggles - getting to grips with the poem and then keeping both the meaning, the rhythms, and the structure! It takes weeks and she often spends hours with the writer making sure she's got it right. What a skill!

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  2. You have entered a world, a discussion, a concept in which I have no measureable experience and no desire to gain any at this moment in life -- therefore, no real opinion. I was required to have reading knowledge of one language beyond English for my Master of Arts degree, and I managed to accomplish that task. Old and Middle English do not count, nor would translation of various runic forms, where style and thought patterns matter little, if at all. End of story for me, even before it begins.

    I would imagine, though, translation of poetry is tougher than translation of fiction.

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  3. Sometimes poetry defeats me, sometimes I struggle to understand it even though it is written in my language, so I can understand how difficult it could be actually to translate it. As for novels, well, if they're not written in English (or American!) I leave well alone. My brain skills are very limited and it's far too late for me to start changing things. Having said all that, I enjoyed reading your post about the subject... it made me wish I'd knuckled down as a youngster.

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  4. our world is so multilayered....learning about other cultures allows us to appreciate it all the more....i try to build cultural experiences into my classroom...translation is hard because unless you really know the culture, translating the words is not going to get the true feeling across

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  5. I have watched foreign films (subtitled, of course!), and have found them utterly riveting. So I have obtained a copies of the novels they were adapted from, only to be grossly disappointed at how much is lost during translation into English. It seems to somehow "dumb the story down", in effect steal the essential meaning, leaving a mere jumble of words.
    Perhaps it is wrong to blame it on a lack of skill on the part of the translator...I think maybe some languages are virtually impossible to accurately transliterate (I have in mind here an Egyptian movie/novel that left me with a powerful and lasting impression).
    At times like these I, too, really wish I had tried harder to learn languages during my school years :/

    Thank you for an incredibly interesting post! :)

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  6. i think it needs a very sensitive translation to not lose too much of the meaning and feel from one language to another cause it's not only the language but a whole different culture as well..
    have fun with the german novels
    smiles

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  7. I once read a serie of three books. Loved the frist two. When I got the third book I was chocked. It was bad, I did not realise anything in the setting. Language compleately changed. Looking at the info of the book I realised they canged the person who translated it. And that was a disaster :( The main caracter was compleately changed. With a very different way of speaking. It was obvious that the second translater of the serie did not read the two first books. :( Wich he should have done!

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  8. I've translated quite a few books - and it's an art in itself...

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  9. Translating has to be tough as you have to know all the slang and everything. But it opens up a whole new world indeed

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  10. I have a friend that speaks 5 languages and she has translated a number of books.
    Interesting post, thank you!

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  11. Translation is a wonderful art. I love the bilingual translations of poetry that are frequently available as at least one can get a sense of the sound of the originals--I especially like these for STephen Mitchell's translations on Rilke. (Mitchell is a genius.) Thanks for the thoughtful post and hope all is well. k.

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  12. You're absolutely right. Like the old expression, some things really DO "lose something in the translation." Inevitably so. The lyrical sound and rhythm of the original text is lost, and some word nuances simply don't exist in the new language. Shades of meaning are so important, and most writers struggle to find the perfect word... which may not have a comparable translation. Still, I salute those who tackle these translations. It's a herculean task.

    Happy weekend!

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  13. Such an interesting post! I think you would be good at translation because you respect how difficult it is. I often wonder about how not just meaning changes but also the rhythm. How the language sounds matters as much as what it conveys. I often read aloud my own writing to check that. I've read several authors in translation, including Allende. Since she must be bilingual, having lived in the USA for years, I wonder why she doesn't translate her own work into English. Perhaps it would be just as hard for the author.

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  14. I so-so agree with you... Translation is very tough... More so because ideas and perspectives differ...

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  15. I can't imagine the work that goes into translation of the creative written word. So much has to be taken into consideration - especially the artist's intent. My hat goes off to anyone who would take on this loving task.

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  16. I am impressed at your attempts at translation of literary works, even if for friends and family. The labor of translating a novel must be as difficult as the writing itself.

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  17. The benefits of a good translation can not be overstated. There's a reason translators get nominated for literary prices, it's a work of art that goes beyond simply trading words in another language. Gabo had a wonderful translator, which saved me from slogging through his original books with my rudimentary Spanish. But sometimes, it's worth it to just go through the original for the beauty of the words and intent.

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  18. I have a certain respect for multilinguals. :P I'm trying to learn Italian.

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  19. I totally agree with you. If writing a novel is a daunting task then translating one, especially not your own, is a whole other ball game. At least to me. How would you know at any juncture in the novel what the author was thinking while penning that line, whether you're doing justice to his/her words without coloring them with your own perception?

    I love Isabelle Allende's works of fiction but after finishing reading each of her novels, I always ask, how much was it her and how much the translator? Food for thought on a whole other level, this. Isn't it?

    I've been absent from the blogging world for some time now but I'm back. Hopefully to stick around this time :). It's good to be back, sharing thoughts with you and your other readers.

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  20. First time visits here, I wish you have a happy day~ =D

    Regards,
    (A Growing Teenager Diary Malaysia)

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  21. Translating is probably just as difficult a task as writing, if not more. I admire those who can do it. To get the voice of the author, for instance, that must be hard. But how many people can compare the original with the translation, the way you do? Also, I think that one has to be very familiar with a language to be able to savour nuances, to really enjoy reading in that language.

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  22. Many thanks for your feedback.

    Greetings from London.

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