Translations in th Public Domain

[Mr.lucifer]

I was wondering, are any of the translations in the public domain any good?

[PeterL]

Yes, there are.

[Mr.lucifer]

How can I tell which ones are decent?

[billl]

A lot of the public domain translations are commonly found in books that you can buy on Amazon.com (I think so, anyway--I haven't looked into the issue too much, but I know that quite a few are...). So, if you've got one you want an opinion on, check to see if that translation is available for sale on Amazon, and see if you can find any opinions down in the user reviews section (looking at the user reviews for a more recent translation will also often include discussion of the older public domain translations, especially if it is a classic, with a lot of debate about which translator did the best job, which translations are out of date, etc.). If enough people say good or bad things about a particular public domain translation, you might get an idea of whether or not it is worth reading. (To be clear--you don't have to buy the book from Amazon, just use the user reviews.)

[PeterL]

How can I tell which ones are decent?

You could read the translations and commentary about the translations. Any tha have gone into the public domain must have been around long enough for someone to have written about thme. Then there are translations of "Beowuolf", there have been many dozens, and some of the better ones have been ignored for decades.

If you want to find public domain translation, you could search by author on http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page . Check for translations of Dante, for example, and look at them. If the translation is unreadable, then it isn't very good.

[Mr.lucifer]

You could read the translations and commentary about the translations. Any tha have gone into the public domain must have been around long enough for someone to have written about thme. Then there are translations of "Beowuolf", there have been many dozens, and some of the better ones have been ignored for decades.

If you want to find public domain translation, you could search by author on http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page . Check for translations of Dante, for example, and look at them. If the translation is unreadable, then it isn't very good.

As another example of quality, how well does James Legge's translations of the chinese classics hold up?

[Alexander III]

I know that the Maude and Constance, translations of Tolstoy are very good - and they are both in the public domain. I also find that Longfellow's translation of Dante is very good.

[PeterL]

As another example of quality, how well does James Legge's translations of the chinese classics hold up?

I have no idea, because I have never read any. I have found that generally translations from Chinese are somewhat idiosyncratic, because Chinese is so different from English.