piatiknizhie in English Pentalogy

[Robert Chandler]

I think it is more than clear that Olga has made her choice 'consciously
with an understanding of the implications'!  You seem, Paul, to be
forgetting that, like most activities, translation can serve many purposes.
I know one interpreter who was congratulated for her diplomacy after the
successful performance of an opera.  The producer was, I think, Lyubimov;
the orchestral conductor was  George Solti (I may have muddled the names).
Solti told her that, but for her diplomacy (i.e. MIStranslations) the
production would have fallen apart.

On one occasion Solti asked why Lyubimov kept using the word IDIOT so often.
The interpreter sweetly replied that it was a Russian word meaning 'he/she
is coming/going'.  Solti did not really believe this, but I think he was so
amused and charmed that he did not continue the row with Lyubimov.

R.




> Olga Meerson wrote:
> 
>> The translation is poor, of course, but the original locution is even
>> "poorer". Pentaptych sounds perfectly adequate but doesn't make me
>> any happier about the original expression. Sometimes a perfect
>> translation lays bare the badness of the original, thereby expressing
>> condescension--in this case, towards Russian colleagues who use a
>> word in such a bad taste so liberally... I would opt for covering up
>> for my colleagues' bad taste. Although neither ethnically Russian nor
>> even a citizen of Russia, I feel somewhat patriotic when it comes to
>> these matters. It is like covering up the body of Noah, if he happens
>> to be your father.
> 
> Well, if you'd like to revise and improve the original, that's a valid
> choice but one you should make consciously with an understanding of the
> implications. It's no longer translation, it's, hmm, "translation plus,"
> or something. I would have no qualms about cleaning up the occasional
> typographic error, but before rewriting an original with the aim of
> improving it I would secure my client's fully informed consent. I don't
> want him coming back later saying, "you misled me about what was in the
> original, I didn't realize what a crock it was...."
> 
> As for condescension, I don't agree that rendering the original
> faithfully expresses condescension; to the contrary, I think it
> expresses respect. But taking it upon myself to "improve" it might well
> be condescending.

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