Just how good are translations?

[JBI]

Almost all languages are worth learning for the sake of reading in another language. The feeling is incomparable.

[aabbcc]

I must say that it is interesting that you say the German language is very poetic, to me, who is someone who doesn't speak the language, it doesn't come across this way. Italian and French do, but not necessarily German, strong and traditional yes, but poetic is not how I would have placed it.

Be careful - you seem to be confusing phonetic aspect of the language with the richness of vocabulary and flexibility of ways which usually lead to a language being perceived as "poetic". A lot of people prefer the sound of Romance languages to the sound of Germanic languages, but that is the question of being "melodic", not "poetic".

That being said, a lot of people told me that German is extremely poetic language. I wish I could read in it.

[kiki1982]

Yes, Anastasija, I think that's the thing. My father was the same: hated German 'because it sounded so direct'. But I said:

Do not think about German as a language spoken by soldiers (sadly that still chases them ), but as a language spoken by a man who says 'I love you' to his wife.
If you hear the poetry and texts of Goethe and Schiller it is admirable, how it sounds.
Although, my mothertongue being Dutch, which is a (reasonably) ugly language (certainly from modern literature on), I maybe persieve German as the closest language to my own, a lot nicer and a lot more poetic because they preserved the old structures that are ruled out in modern Dutch...

I have to disagree about this one. I'd say that when you read a book that was written a long ago in its original language, it's usually just fine. You notice that the language is different than it would be if it was written now, but it doesn't matter. It's still fluent and understandable.

But when you read a translation which was made a long time ago, it often is hopelessly old to the point where it's difficult to understand and just doesn't feel right.

I don't know why translations get "outdated" much faster than original texts, and whether this is something that is characteristic only to Finnish or whether the same phenomenon occurs in other languages as well. Has anyone else ever noticed anything like this?

But if a translation would be too old to read if made at the time the original book was written, why would the original still be readable then? Maybe Finnish has moved on since a short time so that works made in the 19th century for example need to be treated like Shakespeare or older works in English for English speakers. My husband speaks Russian and says that Russian since communism has so much moved on that normal people have great difficulty reading Tolstoi, Distojevski etc because the language was so much mordernised that people don't have the vocabulary. If someone would be able to clarfy this I would be happy.
If this is the case in certain languages then it is normal that they regularly re-translate, but in other languages I wouldn't really be in favour of it.

I think translators work with a certain vocabulary, and work along guidelines to what is acceptable and what not. In that respect they modernise books too much, so they loose the soul of for example a 19th century work. That is at least what I see when I see translations of works. For example on this site I see Les Misérables and I just don't get the same feeling of time as I get when I take it from my shelf in French...

A work like Jane Eyre would be able to be translated in French, but there would just be a tiny pang culturewise... Maybe I should try it once, for fun . But I can imagine that it could be fantastic in German...

[LitNetIsGreat]

Be careful - you seem to be confusing phonetic aspect of the language with the richness of vocabulary and flexibility of ways which usually lead to a language being perceived as "poetic". A lot of people prefer the sound of Romance languages to the sound of Germanic languages, but that is the question of being "melodic", not "poetic".

That being said, a lot of people told me that German is extremely poetic language. I wish I could read in it.

Oh I meant no offence or anything, and I not being ignorant of such a rich culture, but to an untrained ear it doesn't seem to have the melody then, that a language such as Italian for example, appears to have.

I bet the reality is very different too, and believe me, I wish I could speak a different language to try for myself.

[Annamariah]

But if a translation would be too old to read if made at the time the original book was written, why would the original still be readable then? Maybe Finnish has moved on since a short time so that works made in the 19th century for example need to be treated like Shakespeare or older works in English for English speakers.

It's true that Finnish has changed a lot in a relatively short time, but that's not the only explanation. Even though Finnish books from, let's say the late 19th century are written in oldish language which is rather different from modern Finnish, they aren't that hard to understand. Yet Finnish translations from the same era seem hopelessly outdated.

I guess translation interference might be at least a partial cause of this phenomenon. Translated language differs a lot from "normal" language. It's not as natural and "real", so perhaps that's the reason why translations get old faster than original texts.

[kiki1982]

Ah, Annamariah, then I understand your point.

Apparently Finnish different to Dutch then, in the way that Dutch translation tend to be very 'modern'. In that, they take the ways that are considered 'modern' in their 'modern' times, so they are totally outdated in 10 years max...
I guess translation is really different from language to language. Thanks for that insight.

About the culture-thing:
I had a look in a bookshop today at Jne Eyre in German. I have to say 'waw!'. As far as the poetry and description went it was really as poetic as the original, only it collapsed as a soufflé when the dialogue started... It just didn't have the same Victorian spirit to it, something lacked. However, the descriptions in the middle were absolutly fantastic and hey didn't loose anything from the original spirit.

And, Anastasija, thanks for the tip! I had a look at Crime and Punishment in German and it was indeed a lot better than in Dutch. I'll read it sometime.

[ThousandthIsle]

The Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation, which apparently evaluates available translations.