Quote:
Originally Posted by db105
Translation is an art more than a science. If the translator tries to be too literal, the result will be unpleasant to read, so some liberties are necessary, and more if the style is not plain and simple.
However, I have to agree with you. Anachronisms are distracting and can take the reader out of the story.
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Exactly. I have no problem with translators rendering the spirit of the work, in my view it's what they SHOULD aim for. But this particular phrase was superfluous, I think.
Kipling made no comparison of the scene to something else, he didn't say for example "it was like a street artist's pencil sketch". Had he made some sort of comparison like that, then substituting a more relevant modern reference might be justifiable. Simply inserting one seems wrong, when I doubt any kids would have trouble reading the passage without it. It comes across like a narrrator's aside, which I was fine with in
The Princess Bride, but feels out of place here