Kundera article (and insults.)

[Craig Cravens]

Unfortunately for us, the translating team of Aaron Asher (who  
doesn't know Czech) and Milan Kundera (whose English is rudimentary)  
is greatly inferior to Michael Heim (whose style is masterful in both  
languages).

If you're really interested in the whole Kundera translatorial saga,  
please see "Translating Milan Kundera" by Michelle Woods (2006).

And by the way, what's with Kundera's claim (in the article) that he  
left Czechoslovakia in the 1960s?  Is he just trying to forget his  
whole spat with Havel?

Craig



On Jan 12, 2007, at 10:09 AM, Robert Chandler wrote:

> 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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Craig Cravens
Fellow of Czech Studies

Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies
Calhoun 415, F3600
The University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX 78713
Telephone:  512-232-9125
Personal Page:   http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/slavic/faculty/ 
profiles/Cravens/Craig/



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