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Paisley Hedgehog
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Do you pay more for a better translation of a Classic?  

58 members have voted

  1. 1. Do You Pay More For A Better Translation of a Classic?

    • Yes! If I am going to read classic literature, I want the best translation possible even if I have to pay more.
      43
    • No! Why would I pay good money for something I can get for free?
      1
    • Maybe. It would depend on the samples.
      14
    • I don't read literature in translation, but I like voting in polls. I also like goats and cupcakes.
      0


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A really good piece of advice that Susan gave in TWEM is to compare translations to see what the reader prefers. I remember going to Barnes and Noble with my son before he read Don Quixote. I grabbed four or five translations off the shelf and parked the boy in a comfy chair with them. He went to the same chapter in each book (something like chapter five--not the first) and read. There was a clear winner for him in terms of prose style.

 

That is one way to choose a translation.

 

Pevear/Volokhonsky are really in a different league than Garnett so in this case, yes, I would pay.

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I don't always agree with people on which is the "best" translation. However, researching translation is important. Do you want the most readable or the most intact or the most faithful rendering (even if that requires some interpretation)? Different books may require different answers. I have recommended different translations of Gilgamesh to different people for reasons like this.

 

But, I think a good translation makes *all* of the difference in Dostoyevsky, so I would pay for the Pevear/Volokhonsky version over the Garnett version. The McDuff translations are good too, did you check for those? I think the Penguin Classic versions are his.

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I would definitely compare and get the best translation, but I'd then probably get it out of the library if new. ;)

 

But I would also not assume the newest translation is the best, no matter what the dust jacket said.

 

I did get the Miller translations of Jules Verne, as his was the first new translation from the French since it had been very badly translated in the 1800s.

 

But when I went to look at Les Mis and Anna Karenina, I did not end up with the newest translations (and they both have new translations). I sat down and compared them side-by-side. With Les Mis, I found the newest translation to be overly wordy (and that is hard coming from French, which is usually 25% longer than English - the English in this case was often longer. I felt she was often adding multiple words when one would do to avoid possible difficult vocabulary :glare:) The oldest translation I did find a bit stuffy. With Les Mis, I ended up with the Denny, which was neither the oldest nor newest, but I found the most readable. The newest Anna Karenina translation, again, I found to be seeming to try to not use "hard" vocabulary words (that I find just to be normal words) and ended up seeming flat to me. I compared it to an older version I had sitting on my shelf for free, and liked that one much better.

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Yes, almost always when the original/public domain translation is inaccurate, abridged/sanitized, or just awkward compared to more modern ones. If more than one translation is recommended, I usually head to Powell's and compare. I was simply unable to get through The Brothers Karamazov until Pevear/Volokhonsky: their translation seems... alive (Pevear's Three Musketeers is a treat as well); and I paid a premium for the Nunnally translation of Kristin Lavransdatter because it's more readable and is closer to the clear and precise style of the source material. Jules Verne is simply butchered in the original, public domain translations.

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Yes, especially for kids. It's got to be "just right". I've probably read a half dozen versions of the bible-but the one which is "just right", for me, for most occasions, is the NIV. The KJV is great for Psalms and reading aloud-the poetry of it is beautiful, but there's less meaning to it, the RSV is dry, and some of the others are just too modernized or simplified-but the NIV is "just right". And while I'm enjoying attempting now to read the New Testament in Greek, I'm very, very glad my first attempts at reading the bible weren't IN Greek-because I never would have made it!

 

DD has probably a dozen books of Greek/Roman Mythology and the Iliad/Odyssey. She keeps returning to D'Aulaires and Padric Colum. Again, they're "just right".

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dated illiteration doesn't bother me - that's simply like reading an older english novel that didn't require translating. (and in the case you cited, I would think formal is more in keeping with the original writing.) considering the deplorable conditions of much of modern writing, I think I'd prefer an older style. everything depends upon the command of both languages by the translator.

 

but poor translation from one language to another bothers me, no matter when it was done. whether it be the grammar or idiom that is lacking, it detracts. there are some excellent translations that aren't recent.

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With Les Mis, I ended up with the Denny, which was neither the oldest nor newest, but I found the most readable.

 

Yes! It was Denny's translation of Les Miserables that really clued me in to the importance of how a good translation could really transform one's reading experience. When my daughter and I were reading Les Miserables, I found a second copy at the library so we could both have our own copies. It was Denny's translation that I checked out,and we were both soon reading it as the other translation was like wading through mud. (Hmm, perhaps that's strangely appropos given those sewer scenes ....)

 

Regards,

Kareni

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I found that the quality of a translation makes a huge difference! I want the translation to be close to the original tone, style and atmosphere. If I do not know the original language, in order to accomplish this I have to rely on people's recommendations. I found it well worth researching different translations for certain classics.

Sometimes, choosing between different high quality translations is difficult, because one has to balance different factors - typical example are Homeric Epics: how important is it to retain the measure (which sounds stilted in English), or the verse nature, even if with a different measure; how literal a translation vs how well does the English flow... to a certain degree, there are personal preferences involved.

 

I have experienced this firsthand by reading two different translations of "Tom Sawyer" into my native language, a book I am also able to read in the original. The difference was like night and day: one retained the special charm of the original, the other was mediocre and lost much of the original atmosphere.

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