guyk
12-30-2008, 04:49 AM
Having read the first chapter of Anna Karenina, I was disappointed at the quality of the translation by Constance Black Garnett. Even though I don't speak Russian I could read from the English text that it was translated from a foreign language. The English sentences sometimes read unnatural - they did not flow (indicating it was translated literally rather than contextually) and the translator uses the comma freely: seemingly not following the rules of English punctuation!
The key to a successful translation is to do it in such a way that the reader should not even suspect that the text was originally written in a foreign language.
Of course, it is a classic book and one of the greatest in the world; no doubt about that. I am just commenting on the quality of the translated text.
The key to a successful translation is to do it in such a way that the reader should not even suspect that the text was originally written in a foreign language.
Of course, it is a classic book and one of the greatest in the world; no doubt about that. I am just commenting on the quality of the translated text.