#nii2

[hanataiyouame]

nii2 replied to your post “nii2 replied to your post:nii2 replied to your post:seitekishoujo...”

Baudelaire's translations are more free than exact, but they still convey the strange beauty of the original work (of course, with a baudelairesque touch). Kundera's case is also interesting, with him personally reviewing foreign translations.

I suppose that would make Poe interesting then, if it's not a completely literal translation. I will have to pick up a copy someday and see how it looks.

I know a few authors are notorious for doing that, particularly Murakami, and it's often a good thing, since it ensures the translations retain more of the original feeling.

[hanataiyouame]

nii2 replied to your post:nii2 replied to your post:seitekishoujo replied to...

As we are at it, any form of art should be appreciated in its original language (as long as possible). This is true for poetry, but also literature and cinema. There are some exceptions though, like Baudelaire’s translations of Poe’s short stories.

I agree with you. Usually, I try to read/watch everything in its original language, except when I just can't understand it. Translation always takes away something, that much is obvious. I've yet to read Baudelaire's translation of Poe, but another example I can give is the English translation of Pessoa and Saramago, two authors I can't read in Portuguese but I find the English translation gives it a different beauty from the original.

[hanataiyouame]

nii2 replied to your post:seitekishoujo replied to your post “Even if I fuck...

It depends of what I am trying to translate. Very technical stuff is still easy, because there is no ambiguity intended. I just stick to its content. But poetry is different. I feel like there is no way to do justice to it in another language.

Yeah, I'm not even talking about poetry, that's hell in its own sense. I already get really confused with news sometimes, like it's really hard to tell the feelings of someone from text alone, and there are times when you need to understand the context to grab the meaning.

Poetry is incredibly difficult, though. I have a copy of Baudelaire' Fleurs du Mal with the adjoining original French and there are so many poems where the English just fails the French so badly, I just stick with the French version.

[hanataiyouame]

seitekishoujo replied to your post “Even if I fuck up on my translations, I hope you don’t hate me, I’m...”

I appreciate your work! It's always wonderful to get a new perspective on things that I care about. I learn a lot.

Thank you! It's as I said, as long as there are people who find it interesting or benefit from it in any way, I'm happy.

nii2 replied to your post “nii2 replied to your post:Even if I fuck up on my translations, I hope...”

Exactly. I always get this feeling when translating from Japanese, but not that much with closer languages (like French and English). It is not only the meaning, but the whole shape of the text that seems to change.

Yeah, I think it's a problem of the language itself, it's a very vague and concept-based language, so it makes it hard to transpose it into western languages. I just grab the context and write it from there for most cases. How about you?

[hanataiyouame]

nii2 replied to your post:Even if I fuck up on my translations, I hope you...

Reason #1 why I hate translating stuff

You always get this sense of "did I convey the original meaning properly", right? Even more so in languages without direct translations, like Japanese.