Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott Nielsen
I think the art form and skill of translation is taken far more seriously today than was the case historically. It's not merely a technical skill of substituting words from one language to another. I absolutely believe a skilled and experienced translator can do justice to an original work. The crux of the matter, for a non-native speaker, is of course to determine which translation is worthy and which isn't...
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To paraphrase what I said before - Even if I suddenly could read ancient Greek, I could not truly understand it in the way of an ancient Greek. And history is a minor hobby with me. To TRULY understand it, you would have to be steeped in the times and culture, along with the idioms of the day.
I think that your pedantic insistence on perfect translation in lieu of reading a book in it's original language is condescending in fact. Although I don't think that you intend it to be.
I would rather read an imperfect translation, with an imperfect understanding, than to not read it at all. After reading it the first time, I might decide that I would like to have a deeper understanding and pursue it from there.