Translation Matters discussion

I'm launching this Group by referring to a translation I've just completed: that of Haroldo Conti's first novel "Sudeste".

There are many points I'm interested in opening debate about with regard to reading fiction in translation, but perhaps the first is: Do you shy away from reading Fiction in translation? If you like the look of a book in a shop or library, or online, and then discover it's a translation from another language, do you end your interest, or does it add to the attractiveness of the book?

Later I'll be opening other Topics for discussion. If you'd like to join in, please join the group. It doesn't matter that your opinions differ from mine or anyone else's, simply that you put them with respect and help us think about them by giving some explanation of your point of view.

Thanks.

Jon

I don't avoid translations but I'd much rather read in the original. This is of course problematic because I only speak English, Spanish and French.

What bothers me is bring able to notice the original language in the translation. Some translations are too verbatim, others are too regional.

Thanks for this note, Mack. I agree about reading in the original, as being the best option.

You may have read some interesting pieces by Tim Parks on translation and how any sense of the original-language "voice" is often suppressed these days, so as to appeal to a wide audience amongst the translated-language reading audience. This is a disaster for those of us interested in the possibilities that a translation brings to broaden and extend the use of English, as well as looking for a "taste" of the source-language literary world.

Park's articles are available - often as "blog" pieces - on the New York Review of Books website. This is a particular example of what we're talking about:

http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/...

In the translation I'm publishing this month of Haroldo Conti's "South-East", I argue for the translator to be open about his point of "mooring" the translation to the source (or original) text, and state where this "faithfulness" lies in my translation.

I hadn't heard about Parks before, but I'll be sure to read his articles. "Good" translation is something I'm very interested in and would like to learn more of. I've started reading classical theory on it, Nabokov, Ortega y Gasset and others.

Hi Mack,

I'm currently re-reading George Steiner's "After Babel", and I'm writing an extensive commentary as I go, here on my Good Reads page. It may offers something of future reading interest, particularly Steiner's detailed examination of the "domestication/foreignisation" debate, with examples in various languages.

There's also a briefer note before that, in case you don't want the complete story.

Happy - and interesting - reading.