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Re: Souped up xlation of Mysterious island

From: <Skravitz~at~aol.com>
Date: Wed, 29 Jan 2003 19:12:59 EST
To: jvf~at~Gilead.org.il

Norman and members of the Forum,
     In reference to your project to improve the Kingston Mysterious Island
translation: First, I assume that you are aware of Stephen White's 1876
English translation which was published in the (Philadelphia) Evening
Telegraph and which is in the public domain. It is a good reference if you
want to correct some of Kingston's deficiencies. I have a copy which I can
make available to members of the Forum.
Second, Kingston's most serious error by far is his alteration of Nemo's
recital in Chapter XVI of Part III. I am tempted to call this the most
serious error in any English translation of Verne's novels.
Third, you might care to change Captain Harding to Cyrus Smith throughout
(also change Pencroft to Pencroff).
Fourth, the second paragraph in Chapter X, Part II, is omitted. It deals
with details in the design of a small sailing vessel. I once thought that
Kingston omitted this paragraph because he was unfamiliar with its nautical
language. On the contrary, the Encyclopedia Britannica (1944 edition) states
that Kingston (1814-1880) "...had a practical knowledge of seamanship, and
his stories of the sea, full of thrilling adventures and hairbreadth escapes,
exactly hit the taste of his boy readers." If you can fill in this paragraph
in your version you will find that most readers will quickly skim over it.
Fifth, on the outward trip to Tabor Island (Chapter XIII, Part II) Captain
Pencroff was perfectly satisfied with his crew (but it won't corrupt your
readers if they know that he spoke of rewarding them with nothing less than a
quarter liter of wine).
Sixth, Kingston omits simple-to-translate words, phrases and paragraphs on
almost every page and I can think of no reason why he did this. If you
attempt to fill in these omissions then you will end up doing what I ended up
doing namely to do your own translation from scratch.
Seventh, you might care to mention that unabridged translations are available
from Wesleyan and from Random House.
Best of luck on your endeavor.
Sid Kravitz
     
Received on Thu 30 Jan 2003 - 02:13:56 IST

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