A query on translation

[Michel Ryckx]

Cyrus:

"It looks like I'm the only one who thinks a (good) translation may have 
an advantage over the original text in that it speaks the reader's 
mother tongue. It seems I may have to look into a few more cases and 
think it through."

I prefer the translation of Céline's 'Voyage au bout de la nuit' to the 
original.  Maybe because of it's difficult argot vocabulary in French 
for a non-native French speaker?

On the other hand, the classics:  I once had a small book with about 25 
French versions of the most famous Sappho poem; about half of these were 
translations, the other half were inspired by it.  The original is a 
strange mixture of joy and sadness, written in a very particular metric 
system.  None of the translations was able to reproduce the perfect 
balance.  And that's only a few lines.  What I remember of reading Homer 
(that's not a cartoon figure) is that the grammar is fairly easy, as was 
the use of hexameters.  Due to the formular techniques (re-using blocks 
of text, or only its rhythm, very typical for oral literature) it is, 
apart from the vocabulary, fairly easy language.  It was not uncommon we 
read 40 verses an hour.  Well, I've read three translations of the 
Odyseia and two of the Iliad.  None of these is very well, though the 
literal mistakes are minor.  It sounds a bit forced.  On the other hand, 
reading Euripides was so extremely difficult (for me) I prefer a 
translation.

When it comes to mr. Pynchon: why is GR re-translated in Spanish?  I'd 
like to know what was wrong with it. (Juan Martinez, are you there?). 
 The Dutch translation of COL49 is, well, highly debatable -though the 
translator found an excellent solution for WASTE. GR in Dutch works 
fine, but the songs don't work.  M&D and V. are not translated.

The French translation of Mason & Dixon is an absolute marvel, and has 
that same strange poetic quality as the original.  There are some 
reasons for that.  The first is that the translators are very well 
acquainted with mr. Pynchon's work.  The second is mr. Pynchon helped 
them out.  But the main reason is, I think, that 18th century French is 
as rich as 18th century English.

Michel.