Kundera article (and insults.)

[Robert Chandler]

Dear Seelangers,

Kundera was not insulting the Czech language, but Marc Adler is certainly
insulting translators.  It may not happen often but it is certainly not
impossible for a translation to be as fine as an original work; it can even
be finer (Poe is said to be more highly thought of in France than in the USA
because he was translated by Baudelaire).  Maybe Kundera was just feeling
grateful to his translators; maybe he genuinely believed what he was saying.
Either way, there is no insult to the Czech language.  What makes a work
great (whether it is original or translated) is the talent of the writer or
translator - not the language it is written in!

Best Wishes to all,

R.

> Prof Steven P Hill(e)k dio:
> 
>> To the extent that Mr Kundera would like at least a few people to be
>> interested enough to want to learn to read and study his (early) writings
>> in the original Czech, he should keep in mind that those interested folks
> 
> If he wanted people to study Czech, he shouldn't have certified the
> French translations of those early works as being of equal literary
> value as the original. What an insult to the Czech language!

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