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Ten zuiden van de grens, la vest de soare
Mar. 14th, 2020 05:06 pmso i had the brilliant idea of reading La sud de graniță, la vest de soare (translated by Angela Hondru) even though i don't speak Romanian, but at least i wasn't so hubristic as to attempt it without help: i borrowed Ten zuiden van de grens (translated by Elbrich Fennema) from the library to consult when i didn't understand something that seemed important. and if that wasn't enough yet, i also decided to write a post comparing the translations of this novel by Haruki Murakami.
obviously i don't read Romanian well enough to have many intelligent thoughts about it, plus i looked at the Dutch version less and less as i started to improve at reading the Romanian, but i noticed a few things, so here goes.
there are a few lines from a Nat King Cole song in the book, in English. RO p. 16 translates those lines to Romanian, but NL p. 15 does not provide a Dutch translation. this tells us something about the target audiences and how they are approached. i know that in Dutch books, it's pretty normal to have a few short fragments in English (such as a line or two of dialogue or song lines like here) without the need to translate them.
NL p. 25 mentions that the name Izumi means "source", but RO pp. 26-7 does not. the main character's associations with this name are of course given in both translations, but they differ a little. this is a translation technique i learned about during my one semester of translation: the name makes the MC think of a fairy, and the exact details aren't that important, it's more about the general feeling and how to convey that to the audience.
(like in a Russian-French translation about children's fears, you may, and possibly should, replace Baba-Yaga with the Big Bad Wolf - francophone children generally aren't afraid that Baba-Yaga will eat them, chances are they don't even know who that is, and it's not relevant which fairy tale figure it is.)
the Romanian translation has two translator's notes, one on RO p. 91, explaining what katakana is, and one on RO p. 146, explaining a type of administrative division. the Dutch translation doesn't have any translator's notes - katakana is left as is on NL p. 86, and replaces chôme with a Dutch word with a similar meaning (blok) on NL p. 141. for the chôme/blok, i like the Dutch translator's choice better, since it doesn't really matter for the story, scene or aesthetic exactly what kind of place a character gets out of the car.
i've heard there's a school of thought that considers that footnotes mean the translator has failed in their task. i wouldn't take it that far, i personally often like them, and particularly in books translated from (say) Chinese for a Western market, it can be very useful to briefly explain some concept or historical event that is familiar to every Chinese reader, but Western readers may not know about. however, i do recognise that they can distract from the reading flow, so i'd personally use them sparingly, and only when it's really necessary.
i feel like i noticed something about the chapter structure that maybe wouldn't have caught my attention as much otherwise: the middle of the chapter often has dialogue and action, things "happening", and the last page or two are often more introspective; i noticed this because the action was easier to follow while i often had to reach for the Dutch version to reread entire paragraphs that i understood nothing of.
on a personal note, i was very pleasantly surprised with how well this ended up going. reading the Romanian went faster and faster, i understood more and more, remembered more words, and didn't need to consult the Dutch version as often. my passive knowledge of Romanian has greatly increased, but don't ask me to actually produce any sentences.
obviously i don't read Romanian well enough to have many intelligent thoughts about it, plus i looked at the Dutch version less and less as i started to improve at reading the Romanian, but i noticed a few things, so here goes.
there are a few lines from a Nat King Cole song in the book, in English. RO p. 16 translates those lines to Romanian, but NL p. 15 does not provide a Dutch translation. this tells us something about the target audiences and how they are approached. i know that in Dutch books, it's pretty normal to have a few short fragments in English (such as a line or two of dialogue or song lines like here) without the need to translate them.
NL p. 25 mentions that the name Izumi means "source", but RO pp. 26-7 does not. the main character's associations with this name are of course given in both translations, but they differ a little. this is a translation technique i learned about during my one semester of translation: the name makes the MC think of a fairy, and the exact details aren't that important, it's more about the general feeling and how to convey that to the audience.
(like in a Russian-French translation about children's fears, you may, and possibly should, replace Baba-Yaga with the Big Bad Wolf - francophone children generally aren't afraid that Baba-Yaga will eat them, chances are they don't even know who that is, and it's not relevant which fairy tale figure it is.)
the Romanian translation has two translator's notes, one on RO p. 91, explaining what katakana is, and one on RO p. 146, explaining a type of administrative division. the Dutch translation doesn't have any translator's notes - katakana is left as is on NL p. 86, and replaces chôme with a Dutch word with a similar meaning (blok) on NL p. 141. for the chôme/blok, i like the Dutch translator's choice better, since it doesn't really matter for the story, scene or aesthetic exactly what kind of place a character gets out of the car.
i've heard there's a school of thought that considers that footnotes mean the translator has failed in their task. i wouldn't take it that far, i personally often like them, and particularly in books translated from (say) Chinese for a Western market, it can be very useful to briefly explain some concept or historical event that is familiar to every Chinese reader, but Western readers may not know about. however, i do recognise that they can distract from the reading flow, so i'd personally use them sparingly, and only when it's really necessary.
i feel like i noticed something about the chapter structure that maybe wouldn't have caught my attention as much otherwise: the middle of the chapter often has dialogue and action, things "happening", and the last page or two are often more introspective; i noticed this because the action was easier to follow while i often had to reach for the Dutch version to reread entire paragraphs that i understood nothing of.
on a personal note, i was very pleasantly surprised with how well this ended up going. reading the Romanian went faster and faster, i understood more and more, remembered more words, and didn't need to consult the Dutch version as often. my passive knowledge of Romanian has greatly increased, but don't ask me to actually produce any sentences.
