At Words without Borders translator-from-the-Greek Karen Emmerich has an intriguing piece on 'The Making of Originals: The Translator as Editor' (obnoxiously spread out in two parts: see part one and two -- come on, people: single-page (and single-day, while we're at), always single-page presentation: you can't (or shouldn't) be this desperate to inflate your page-view totals (and piss off your readers)).
An interesting discussion, though as someone who doesn't even like to see the author tampering with a 'finished' (I know, I know ...) work -- and worries greatly about authors bending to publishers' and translators'demands suggestions because of their desperation to get published in English at whatever cost to their, and their text's, integrity (don't doubt it: I've had authors insist to me they're just fine with their books being translated into English via a third language (i.e. not from their original, but rather a translation into another language) -- though since they've only done so per e-mail I can/do still imagine their sobs tears as they write those words ...) -- there's an awful lot here that turns my stomach.
(Hmmm, maybe spreading out publication of such a piece over two days and pages is the safest way to present such shocking material .....)
Hair-raising indeed is Emmerich's description of the translation of Vassilis Vassilikos' The Few Things I Know About Glafkos Thrassakis (about which, after (and, no doubt, also in part because of ...) all that trouble (and cutting), the Publishers Weekly review found: "the uneven structure and the long-winded treatment of Thrassakis's work reduces the effectiveness of this elegantly written (and pristinely translated) satire" ...).
I'm always reluctant to touch on these issues, since I sit on the far (eccentric/nutty/deeply unpopular) end of the spectrum -- I prefer my translations absolutely (and hence, to many ears and eyes, often painfully) literal, and hold the original (and hence adherence to it) as sacrosanct -- but I appreciate Emmerich's giving some examples, and hence raising awareness of just how contemporary translation(-into-English, though it's much the same -- and often worse -- in other languages) works.
An interesting discussion, though as someone who doesn't even like to see the author tampering with a 'finished' (I know, I know ...) work -- and worries greatly about authors bending to publishers' and translators'
Hair-raising indeed is Emmerich's description of the translation of Vassilis Vassilikos' The Few Things I Know About Glafkos Thrassakis (about which, after (and, no doubt, also in part because of ...) all that trouble (and cutting), the Publishers Weekly review found: "the uneven structure and the long-winded treatment of Thrassakis's work reduces the effectiveness of this elegantly written (and pristinely translated) satire" ...).
I'm always reluctant to touch on these issues, since I sit on the far (eccentric/nutty/deeply unpopular) end of the spectrum -- I prefer my translations absolutely (and hence, to many ears and eyes, often painfully) literal, and hold the original (and hence adherence to it) as sacrosanct -- but I appreciate Emmerich's giving some examples, and hence raising awareness of just how contemporary translation(-into-English, though it's much the same -- and often worse -- in other languages) works.