[Lexicog] When Semantics Doesn't Matter

[Fritz Goerling]

You are right, David,

 

The lex-list in not exactly the place to discuss this question which people
with your and my background love to discuss.

Bill Poser was not wrong with his generalized statement. Let me give an
example: German philosopher Immanuel Kant’s works are extremely difficult to
understand in German. Now I heard that translations of Kant into English are
clearer and easier to understand. Why is that? I’d say it takes a
philosopher to translate a philosopher (in the same way as it takes a poet
to translate a poet). Certainly the translator(s) of Kant into English made
an effort to understand Kant (you can’t translate what you have not
understood) and translated his works into comprehensible English. I would
not go so far to say that these translations are better than the original
but they communicate better.

We as Bible translators do the same when we try to furnish meaning-based
translations of the complicated Greek syntax of say, Paul’s letter to the
“Romans” or to the “Ephesians.” The same applies to the translation of
Hebrew poetry.

 

For what it is worth,

Fritz

 

 

This is a very interesting philosophical question, whether a translation can
be better than an original. The reason it is so interesting is that in
answering the question, some premises might have to be stated that might
have been left unstated otherwise.

 

It seems to me that if it is absolutely impossible for a translation to be
better than the original, you are saying that the primary virtue of a
translation is its faithfulness to the original. That is, to the extent that
it is not faithful to the original, to that same extent it is not legitimate
somehow. Would you say that that is the case for every kind of translation?
Can you really say that, for example, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet in
German cannot be better (in any way?) than Shakespeare's original in
English? Is it really disqualified from being better, or it rather a
question for research to see if it is better?

 

We don't want to try to answer these questions on the Lexicography List, but
there may be a different place where such issues can be discussed. I
appreciate Bill Poser for bringing up a though-provoking idea.

 

-- David Frank

 

----- Original Message ----- 

From: Fritz <mailto:Fritz_Goerling at sil.org>  Goerling 

To: lexicographylist@ <mailto:lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com>
yahoogroups.com 

Sent: Saturday, June 30, 2007 7:33 PM

Subject: RE: [Lexicog] When Semantics Doesn't Matter

 

Hayim,

 

Let me comment on a few of your points. 

 

Fritz

 

The statement was made:

 

<<Shakespeare is better in German translation.>>

 

Hayim responded:


Let me share some thoughts relating to this generalization.
<
5. Do Shakespeare's witticisms and phraseology sound better in translation?

 

      Witticisms and puns can very rarely be reproduced. It is always better
to read

      the author in the original. In a translation one can add a footnote
explaining

      a pun in order not to lose the effect.


6. Can anybody state that KJV of the Bible or German Luther's translation
or any other translation of the Bible be better than Hebrew original.

 

      Of course, not. Translators of the Bible should know the original
languages.

      A model is St. Jerome, responsible for the Vulgata, who settled down
in Jerusalem.


7. Can anybody state that any translation of a classical work (I mean 
one written in classical Greek or ancient Latin) be better than the
original?  

 

      Never, but a translation can be “kongenial” ( I don’t know how to
translate

      the German word into English because “congenial” seems to be a false
friend;

      maybe “ideally matched”). An example would be the late Hans
Wollschläger’s

      legendary translation of James Joyce’s “Ulysses” into German.


8. There are many excellent translations from language A to language B,
and how laudable they can be they never are going to be equal to the
original.

 

     At best “kongenial.”

 
Hayim Sheynin

 

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