thinking that rhythm and tempo should be matters of prime concern in a translation
Hmm, interesting! I don't think I've often seen rhythm and tempo foregrounded. I'll have to think about that one.
I was also tickled by the mention of Waley - I've recently written a paper on English translations of The Journey to the West, focusing on Anthony C. Yu's full translation, but Waley's abridged one also featured heavily (and was not... super kindly received by Yu XD).
in particular with regard to how faithful a (literary) translation should or should not be
Oh man, oh man, that old can of worms. I keep somewhat up to date with translation studies (for what that's worth...) and was very interested (and somewhat vindicated) to find that these days the prevailing opinion seems to be a) stop arguing about how faithful a translation is because such debates almost always miss the point anyway and b) translation as an active, creative art form in itself; a translation is never going to be 100% faithful, the nature of the thing makes it impossible - so why not then have some fun with it? And yes, of course it always depends on context, sometimes as faithful a translation as you can manage might be called for (see technical translation, for example), but it's really just such a tired argument.
I use CAT software (Trados); it’s not machine translation, but it remembers for you what you’ve already translated and keeps track of glossaries as well, thus saving effort and enhancing consistency
Fascinating! I didn't realise that there's such software (I possibly should have - my sister was a technical translator for years) and it sounds immensely useful for that kind of translation.
in which the characters tend to speak Malaysian-English; I can’t imagine how this could be effectively translated into another language
Oh, this (and dialect) use was a massive topic in the one literary translation course I took once. It's one of those 'there are some strategies but no one has a truly good solution and probably never will' things. Any kind of localisation effort by using dialects of the target language loses, at best, nuance and connotation, but at worst completely misses the point because there just won't ever be a 1-1 option. And yet, taking out the dialectisation also loses something critical. Of the strategies there are, translator's footnotes tends to be my preferred one, but ymmv. Early Terry Pratchett reading has made me used to reading (and liking) footnotes in fiction, so there's less of a barrier than some. Plus, I'm interested in the process of translation itself, which your average reader probably isn't.
Unrelated to translation, but Zen Cho has been on my to read list for approximately forever, so maybe this'll give me a nudge to get moving on that.
can we have a three R’s of translation, to wit respect, research, and readability? I feel like that would cover most of the issues with literary translation.
Very nice and yes, seconded! I've been doing a tiny amount of subbing on viki (life got in the way), English to German, and I very quickly realised that readability in particular is a dimension that translation studies sometimes ignores a little too much. Granted, this does also depend on medium - TV show subs that are only briefly on the screen need to be very accessible to not detract.
no subject
Hmm, interesting! I don't think I've often seen rhythm and tempo foregrounded. I'll have to think about that one.
I was also tickled by the mention of Waley - I've recently written a paper on English translations of The Journey to the West, focusing on Anthony C. Yu's full translation, but Waley's abridged one also featured heavily (and was not... super kindly received by Yu XD).
in particular with regard to how faithful a (literary) translation should or should not be
Oh man, oh man, that old can of worms. I keep somewhat up to date with translation studies (for what that's worth...) and was very interested (and somewhat vindicated) to find that these days the prevailing opinion seems to be a) stop arguing about how faithful a translation is because such debates almost always miss the point anyway and b) translation as an active, creative art form in itself; a translation is never going to be 100% faithful, the nature of the thing makes it impossible - so why not then have some fun with it? And yes, of course it always depends on context, sometimes as faithful a translation as you can manage might be called for (see technical translation, for example), but it's really just such a tired argument.
I use CAT software (Trados); it’s not machine translation, but it remembers for you what you’ve already translated and keeps track of glossaries as well, thus saving effort and enhancing consistency
Fascinating! I didn't realise that there's such software (I possibly should have - my sister was a technical translator for years) and it sounds immensely useful for that kind of translation.
in which the characters tend to speak Malaysian-English; I can’t imagine how this could be effectively translated into another language
Oh, this (and dialect) use was a massive topic in the one literary translation course I took once. It's one of those 'there are some strategies but no one has a truly good solution and probably never will' things. Any kind of localisation effort by using dialects of the target language loses, at best, nuance and connotation, but at worst completely misses the point because there just won't ever be a 1-1 option. And yet, taking out the dialectisation also loses something critical. Of the strategies there are, translator's footnotes tends to be my preferred one, but ymmv. Early Terry Pratchett reading has made me used to reading (and liking) footnotes in fiction, so there's less of a barrier than some. Plus, I'm interested in the process of translation itself, which your average reader probably isn't.
Unrelated to translation, but Zen Cho has been on my to read list for approximately forever, so maybe this'll give me a nudge to get moving on that.
can we have a three R’s of translation, to wit respect, research, and readability? I feel like that would cover most of the issues with literary translation.
Very nice and yes, seconded! I've been doing a tiny amount of subbing on viki (life got in the way), English to German, and I very quickly realised that readability in particular is a dimension that translation studies sometimes ignores a little too much. Granted, this does also depend on medium - TV show subs that are only briefly on the screen need to be very accessible to not detract.