Now all morning I ve been wondering if I got it wrong after reading a review of King of Tulza that anz lit lover pingback to mine ,Now oddly enough when I look yesterday there was no reviews on non dutch blogs came up in first few google pages .But she had a totally different opinion on this book to myself ,which I considered one of the best books I ve read this year so far .Now Lisa of anz lit lovers refered to the translation as clunky ,where as my feeling was Paul Vincent had managed to retain a real dutch feel to the prose ok maybe the grammer isn’t great in places, but it is written as a view of a dutch officer should in a high pressure situation and would we expect it to be perfect ,well I’d say no, but that is my humble opinion .Having spent many a day and night in Nijmegen where the writer is from at times it felt like I was in a bar on the waterfront on the Rhine with Arnold op de Haar ,so is it a feel of the original language or a totally grammatically correct version people want maybe I m wrong I know I often am but I just love when the translator is able to capture the original essence of the writers voice like Milce where I felt the creole tones of Haiti fall of the page .Felt I had to put why I felt the translation work for me forward to everyone .
WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR ?
I blogged on this a while back (in relation to Japanese writers):
http://tonysreadinglist.blogspot.com/2010/05/lost-in-translation.html
I’ve never really read translations of books from languages I know well (I try to read French and German books in the original), so I’ve never really compared a translation to the original. As long as the book flows, I’m happy; it’s when there are jarring mis-tones and clumsy expressions that you notice it. Like a good referee, you shouldn’t notice that the translator’s there at all 😉
I wish my german was good enough to read german it was good enough to read a paper but used find myself running to dictonary a lot ,all the best stu
I guess the holy grail for translators is capturing the essence of the author in their translations. I look for that in all translations but I guess it’s difficult to tell whether they’ve captured it or not, unles you’r wholly familiar with the vernacular.
Most important for me though is that the translator has retained something of the cultural element of the work. There’s nothing I hate more than a translator adapting a novel to fit in with the target audience’s own cultural nuances. The worst example I’ve seen of this lately has come from David Coward and his translations of a number of Maupassant stories for Oxford Classics. His translations on the whole are generally quite good. But for some reason he’s felt the need to give all rural peasants a kind of West Country (England) accent, and all urban peasants a Cockney drawl. So annoying.
Anna Sam’s Checkout is a bit annoying in that sense too. In the English translation every mention of money has been changed to £s instead of French Francs/ Euros. It’s hair-pullingly frustrating.
Anyway, thanks for a great post Stu. Very thought-provoking
Warmest
Rob
thanks rob I have point out in past translations I haven’t enjoyed ,but just think this may have been a differing view of the book ,on whole it is quiet subjective over translations as I ve found with older books people have a favourite for a reason ,the cultural element seemed here with king of tuzla ,it felt very dutch at times ,but know how thatcan be view as bad translation as well it is a fine line the translator ealks between readablity and being authentic to orginal work ,all the best stu
I don’t think you’ve ‘got it wrong’ Stu – we’re just coming from different perspectives and have a different opinion.
And given your knowledge of the author and his milieu, I’d have to defer to your greater experience!
Cheers
Lisa
think you may be right ,plus on one level this may be appeal to me as a male reader a little differently ,all the best stu
I did wonder that, Stu, about whether men and women would approach this differently…
Great post, Stu. Sometimes it hard to know when a translation is good and retains the authors voice and when it’s not. or even when the translator removes small cultural references to make it easier for us, English readers, to read and connect with the work. Such a quagmire. I refer everyone 😉 to the translated books of the writers of the creolite movement; Chamioseau, Pineau and Confiant. Esp. Chamioseau, his translated works retain the creole tone and the oral storytelling aspect of Caribbean/African cultures.
it is kinna I ll look at some of the names you suggested for creole reading thanks ,all the best stu
Reading a translation has been likened to eating french fries with gloves on!
One never gets the complete essence but most translators do a good job while unavoidably adding their own cultural interpretation from their time and space into the mix.
a great way to put it kevin ,all the best stu
What a great post Stu. I don’t think you ‘have it wrong’ I think we just often are each looking for different things from a translator. I want it to keep the essence of the original work, but how do you really know if it is just clunky or if that is how it was written, know what I mean? I always wonder about that! Sounds like, from your experience, it is true to how it should be though.
hard to say normally but ,felt ok to me ,maybe just we were coming at it from different angles ,all the best stu
I didn’t like this at all and failed to finish it. I found the translation too clunky and overall the story was uninteresting (to me).
maybe my personal connexion changed my view of it ,all the best stu
I don’t have the experience you have Stu, but I have to say I rather enjoyed the novel too. I think it is important to appreciate that at times you cannot be true to the recipient language and to the original language at the same time, and I think overall the translator was staying true to the whole persona of Tijmen and the author. In saying that, I would not say the novel was without fault in terms of grammar and editing. I just think that the beauty of the story itself shines through despite that and I would definitely like to read the sequel