11-19-2008, 11:14 AM | #1 |
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Worst (& Best) Book Translations
I thought of this one while looking around for a copy of the Brothers Karamazov. No matter what foreign text you see translated someone (typically a professor ) will whine about the quality of the translation.
As this is a very international forum I'm certainly not limiting this discussion to books translated into English. Any translated work is welcome. Whether it be from Russian to English, Japanese to French or even the Queen's English to us Yankee Doodlers. -MJ (One might note that in each of these posts I haven't given an opinion... That's basically because when I think of it my mind winds up going blank...) Last edited by mjh215; 11-19-2008 at 11:51 AM. |
11-19-2008, 11:49 AM | #2 |
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Robert Heinlein once wrote that he and Ginny learned Russian in order to read the Russian Classics in the origian language, thinking that he could get a feel for why they were considered "classic." He said that the books gained something in the translation.
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11-19-2008, 12:09 PM | #3 |
Sir Penguin of Edinburgh
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I thought Hamlet (translated from the original Klingon) was pretty good.
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11-24-2008, 02:58 PM | #4 |
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I think a good translator will give you a different take on the English language that might offer a better "feel" for the foreign language than you could get my learning it at an older age. I always find there's something magical that comes out of a translation, like I have a window into another perspective on my language.
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