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Re: Translations in general

From: margot <margot~at~attglobal.net>
Date: Wed, 02 Feb 2000 18:32:32 -0500
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~math.technion.ac.il>

Skravitz~at~aol.com wrote:
>
> I think we agree that in general JV's English translators have done a poor
> job. I ask the Forum three related questions. 1) Have JV's translators into
> languages other than English done a better job? 2) Have other French
> novelists, say Hugo and Dumas, fared better with translators? 3) In general,
> do translators do a good job?


Sid, your first question is very interesting and I will try to comment
for a few languages I can check myself.

But first of all, let me ask the following question : why is JV almost
only in the US considered as the father of SF and practically never as
a writer, novelist, artist to put on the sale level as Shakespeare,
Dostoievsky, Hemingway and Victor Hugo ? On the other hand, in Europe,
he is recognized as a writer, novelist and sometimes as SF writer.

This leads us to the bad (even criminal) English translations. People
reading JV in French can appreciate his writing, his style, his humor
(yes, JV can very often be a hilarious author !), the structure of the
novel, all aspects which makes him a NOVELIST. With poor English
translations, the American reader can just appreciate the story and
the fantastic machines, so JV becomes the father of SF and nothing
else.

Today I went through German (Hartleben publisher), Portuguese (David
Corazzi publisher), Spanish and Italian translations. All are closer
to the French text than the English translations. Of course, it's
easier to translate French into another latin-originated language as
Italian or Portuguese than into English. But even the German editions
are closer to the French text. As a first approximation, we can say
that the main other European languages translations are good.

One point is important : the titles are translated, not invented. Very
few were modified to fit the language. The most important modification
is of course "Sans dessus dessous" in which the French joke cannot be
translated literally. It became "Topsy-Turvy" in English, "Kein
Durcheinander" in German and "Fora dos eixos" in Portuguese. All other
titles are almost correctly translated, even "P'tit Bonhomme" (Little
Fellow) which became "Foundling Mick" only in English !

Jean-Michel Margot
Received on Thu 03 Feb 2000 - 01:29:36 IST

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