Despite my great interest in foreign fiction -- and, necessarily, my reliance on translation to make much/most of that accessible to me -- I continue to have and occasionally express strong reservations, concerned about what is lost in translation.
A lot of what might be lost is, at least, quite openly discussed, but one thing that gets far too little attention is how much editors and publishers fuck [apologies for the language, but that's really the only way to put it] with texts in (re-)presenting them in English -- whether in cahoots with the translators or not. (Indeed, often the authors themselves are coöpted, made complicit in the disfigurement of their own work, deluded by the dreams of fame and dollar signs they believe translation-into-English(-at-any-cost) will bring them.)
The latest example which finally gets aired is the example Bettina David describes at Qantara.de, of One novel; two very different versions, as it turns out that Andrea Hirata's The Rainbow Troops was quite radically changed for its 'Western' (i.e. basically English) version, tailored to 'Western' expectations. As a consequence, she suggests:
(I'll try to address this at greater length some day, but I get so livid when thinking about it that it might be a while .....)
A lot of what might be lost is, at least, quite openly discussed, but one thing that gets far too little attention is how much editors and publishers fuck [apologies for the language, but that's really the only way to put it] with texts in (re-)presenting them in English -- whether in cahoots with the translators or not. (Indeed, often the authors themselves are coöpted, made complicit in the disfigurement of their own work, deluded by the dreams of fame and dollar signs they believe translation-into-English(-at-any-cost) will bring them.)
The latest example which finally gets aired is the example Bettina David describes at Qantara.de, of One novel; two very different versions, as it turns out that Andrea Hirata's The Rainbow Troops was quite radically changed for its 'Western' (i.e. basically English) version, tailored to 'Western' expectations. As a consequence, she suggests:
This means that for Western readers, The Rainbow Troops is a story from Indonesia, but one where the author's Indonesian voice is no longer audible.I'd write more about this if my head didn't hurt so much from bashing it against the wall in frustration that this kind of shit still happens -- and that readers are essentially kept in the dark about it when it does. Sadly, it happens far more often than you'd expect (and certainly far more often than you know), even with books in more familiar languages (I remind you that French author Katherine Pancol's mega-bestselling The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles only recently made it into English -- and only in a much-butchered edition (though at least there they admit it in small print on the copyright page ...)) -- and I wish there were at least more open discussion of it.
(I'll try to address this at greater length some day, but I get so livid when thinking about it that it might be a while .....)