I have always had an affinity for languages, especially the Latin-based ones, and learning to speak more of them is still on my To-Do list. But even though I’m fluent in Spanish and can sort-of read and understand French, Portuguese and Italian, I always choose to read books in English, regardless of what language they were originally printed in.
But recently, my eldest daughter made a comment in passing about how she avoids reading translations when she can, because she feels the English version loses the nuances of the original language. I must admit, it’s something I did notice when reading some translated Spanish poems and comparing them to the originals for my undergraduate poetry class at Alfred University. But I wrote that off as “poetry is always better in its native tongue; fiction just needs a good story.”
However, now I look at all the books I have that were translated from German, Russian and Spanish, and I feel like I’m missing out. What was the author really trying to convey, and did the translator capture it?
A few years ago, while participating in a book club with my sister and her friends, I read Broken Glass Park by Alina Bronsky, and completely hated it. Now I’m wondering if I would have loved it had I read the book in German. And I’m currently trying to get into The Funeral Party by Ludmila Ulitskaya, but it’s losing my interest quickly. Not that I speak or read Russian and German, but there’s that lingering feeling of “lost in translation.”
Was my daughter right? Or did she only manage to add to my neuroses?
Just to be safe, I returned the translated copy of Carlos Fuentes’ Vlad back to the library I borrowed on Tuesday, in exchange for a copy printed in the original Spanish. This time, I’ll be sure not to miss a thing!
What are your thoughts on reading translated books?
xoxo,
Raquel Ivelisse
I had a copy of a literary treatise on Don Quixote that I bought when traveling in Spain and staying in a B&B owned by a Quixote scholar. As she was showing us (my mom and I) around the B&B, where each room was devoted to a specific Quixote tale, I did my best to translate for my mom … because the woman spoke no English … and marveled at just how much Spanish I’d retained. That being said, the treatise still sits in a shelf, untranslated. My goal was to at least try but, once I realized I had to look up words in the title, I gave up.
Translated books are awesome because they allow us to travel through the minds of authors who we might not otherwise have read. However, I think there is always the risk of losing things in translation because each language has its own subtleties. There are colloquialisms that don’t translate, no matter how closely you might get, so I think some of the original thoughts of the author are lost.
@kelly- I’ve been trying to get better with my written Spanish so that I can translate my own works, but un-learning years of improper grammar & syntax has been beyond difficult. I might have to take some classes!
I agree with your point on translations taking us to worlds we might never see first-hand, so I will plow through “The Funeral Party” and see if I get a clear picture of Russians living in NYC.
Who says the grammar and syntax need to be corrected? Maybe that’s how the character speaks or, better yet, maybe that’s how the narrator speaks.
@kelly- I see what you’re doing- you’re trying to light a fire under me!! *side eye* lol