On Tue, Nov 26, 2024 at 11:01 AM Yeddanapudi Radhika <[email protected]> wrote:
> Yes, I've noticed that problem in translation. For example, my American > slang tends to be 80s high-school slang because I spent a couple of years > in the early 80s in California. I've learned through experience that > everytime I see Madrid slang it cannot be translated to that 80s slang > which has not traveled or aged well and besides is anachronistic. > Fascinating. Could you share some examples? > There is another problem though - a lot of translation is both bland and > almost too local - 'scattershot' is a lovely example of the latter. It > changes the register, the geography, the feel of the piece. As soon as I > see that word I think - the translator is American or American influenced. > Btw, I checked Collins online and it has examples of both Brit and American > usage and I might be wrong in thinking that the Brits would use > random/haphazard... > Hah! I am impressed that you were able to triangulate my bonafides to American influence. I do not ply the translator's craft. I picked 'scattershot' out of the air as I was composing (on a phone, that too) my reply to Udhay's post. After I sent my reply a couple of other idioms came to mind: "higgledy piggledy", "haphazard" and "desultory". > > Some of that problem cannot be helped, the translator isn't as invisible > as publishers think nor do they need to be. Most authors and poets I've > worked with accept that some changes will not be what they expect as long > as it doesn't stray too far away. The translated text is its own country > with a hybrid language that hopefully still conveys the richness of the > original. > You should check out Srinath Perur's translations of Vivek Shanbaug. Ghacchar Ghocchar is a good work to start with. I feel it does an excellent job of painting an Indian scene using contemporary English. R.K. Narayan and Salman Rushdie were masters at writing in English while staying true to the Indian scenes they were describing. Thaths -- Homer: Hey, what does this job pay? Carl: Nuthin'. Homer: D'oh! Carl: Unless you're crooked. Homer: Woo-hoo!
-- Silklist mailing list [email protected] https://mailman.panix.com/listinfo.cgi/silklist
