Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Not at all. My question was, how do you know how much of the original author you're reading, and how much of the translator?
How do you judge?
I'm not taking about reading for pleasure here, but using translations when judging the merit of a book as a work of literature. Can you make an informed jugement of, say, Tolstoi, if you only read his books in translation?
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There is only one answer for that, Harry. To truly know, you must not only know the language, but the culture, and times as well. For instance, do you know what "A knock in the night" means to an older resident of the Warsaw Pact countries? I bet you do. But others, especially the young? Probably not
If I told you a translated Yiddish joke from a pre WWII saccharin party would you even understand the "saccharin party" part? Don't bother looking it up. It's not in a Wiki. And if you never knew any big city east European Jews from that time you would never have heard of a saccharin party.
So an "accurate" translation may by fine for an academic, but the understanding of the reader may suffer by a lack of knowledge concerning the idioms used at the time by the author.
If accuracy is the most important rule then there is no reason for me to even attempt to read Tolstoy. Even if you tell me which book is the best translation, I still would not understand mid 1800s Russia as well as I should.