I read extensively in German, but I don't think that translations are inherently bad or *necessarily* significantly worse than the original (although, obviously, there is some loss). But, for reasons I don't really understand, translations don't seem to age well. I can read a 19th century work in the original and it never strikes me as being particularly archaic or stilted - but if I read a 19th C translation of the same work, it often strikes me as being stilted and murky, in a way the original isn't. But newer translations - say, Kaufmann's excellent translation of "Faust" - don't seem to have this problem.
Relatedly, there are translations of Shakespeare into modern English available, mostly as study aids. And while I really don't like the idea for various reasons, I have to admit that I usually pick up something I didn't catch in the original - and I've read a lot of Shakespeare. Here's an example of a translation from Macbeth:
Quote:
As whence the sun 'gins his reflection
Shipwracking storms and direful thunders break,
So from that spring whence comfort seemed to come
Discomfort swells. Mark, King of Scotland, mark:
No sooner justice had, with valor armed,
Compelled these skipping kerns to trust their heels,
But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage,
With furbished arms and new supplies of men,
Began a fresh assault.
|
Becomes
Quote:
|
But in the same way that violent storms always come just as spring appears, our success against Macdonwald created new problems for us. Listen to this, King: as soon as we sent those Irish soldiers running for cover, the Norwegian king saw his chance to attack us with fresh troops and shiny weapons.
|