From: Farley Flud <ff@linux.rocks>
Subject: Re: Joy of Translation
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc
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Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2024 15:16:56 +0000
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On Wed, 11 Dec 2024 12:33:16 -0000 (UTC), Lars Poulsen wrote:

> On Tue, 10 Dec 2024 22:03:06 +0100, D wrote:
>> The question is if anything more complicated than Schwedenkrimi can really 
>> be translated. In one of Heidegger's more accessible essays he questions 
>> if we can adequately translate Greek with the nuances and associations the 
>> words had in the original.
> 
> In a discussion on Quora about the ambiguities of Bible translations,
> Franklin Veaux said somethiong like "Imagine a translator 2000 years from
> now trying to figure out the difference between a butt dial and a booty
> call".
> 

All so very, very true.

There is one solution however: comments, comments, and comments.

In one of the best translations of the ancient Greek tragedies that
I have ever encountered (sadly, both the author and title are now
lost to me), the author commented heavily on nearly every line
of the translation.  This was done in the book using facing pages,
i.e. the left page contained the original Greek and the English
translation while the right page contained the extensive line-by-line
commentary.

One could easily glance back and forth between the facing pages
to develop an insight into the original.  This kind of a set-up
is much better than the often used footnotes.

However, much meaning and nuances are probably still destined
to be lost.


-- 
Systemd: solving all the problems that you never knew you had.