[Lexicog] Re: When Semantics Doesn't Matter

[bolstar1]

Hayim: I've never had less an appreciation for, admiration for, your 
linguistic talents. It's a pleasure to read your posts. (I knew your 
meaning, and point.)
 
Scott N.



--- In lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com, Hayim Sheynin 
<hsheynin19444 at ...> wrote:
>
> <<Shakespeare is better in German translation.>>
> 
> Let me share some thoughts relating to this generalization.
> 1. For whom Shakespeare is better in German translation? It is
> clearly for the people who know German better than English.
> 2. Can you imagine that somebody knows a second language
> better than his native language (mother's tongue)?
> 3. Is this generalization relates to a feeling of a scholar 
(philologist,
> linguist, literary scholar) or an impression of a common reader.
> 4. Are in German literary references of Shakespeare and his sources
> are better understood?
> 5. Do Shakespeare's witticisms and phraseology sound better in 
translation?
> 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.
> 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?
> 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.
> 9. If somebody who tried his hand in translation can confirm the 
statement 
> above, it would be interesting to analyze this.
> However taking in account all the aspects of translation it is very 
difficult
> to accept this opinion.
> 
> Hayim Sheynin   
> 
> bolstar1 <bolstar1 at ...> wrote:                                  
Bill: Now I'm chuckling over your point about Shakespeare reading 
>  better in German than in English(I know it wasn't your own 
statement, 
>  but it was just so darn cute.) This would be an example of the use 
of, 
>  for lack of a better term, hyperbolic hyperbole. I have always 
thought 
>  it a waste of time, personally, to have read through all of 'War 
and 
>  Peace' -- you know, that tidbit of a book by Leo-the-Sparse -- 
without 
>  enjoying Leo's rhetorical genius (Oh, what I must have missed in 
the 
>  translation.) Leo T.quaintly once said of Shakespeare, ""The works 
of 
>  Shakespeare, borrowed as they are, and externally, like mosaics, 
>  artificially fitted together piecemeal from bits invented for the 
>  occasion, have nothing whatever in common with art and poetry." 
>      Granted, Tolstoy may have been in a temporary stupor, or maybe 
his 
>  wife had spilled hot coffee on his pants that morning, or perhaps 
he 
>  didn't read a German translation of Shakespeare......but whatever 
the 
>  reason, he may be in on the theory that Shakespeare wasn't such a 
hot 
>  literary number as he is purported to be. I'd like to see more 
proof of 
>  this though. 
>  
>  Scott Nelson
>   
>  
>  --- In lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com, billposer@ wrote:
>  >
>  > I have been told by people whose knowledge of both
>  > Shakespeare and German is better than my own that
>  > Shakespeare is better in German translation.
>  > It seems odd that anything would be better in translation,
>  > but I suppose that the English of Shakespeare is sufficiently
>  > different from Modern English that this may be like saying
>  > that Shakespeare is better in Modern German translation than
>  > in Modern English translation, which is not so implausible.
>  > 
>  > Bill
>  >
>  
>  
>      
>                        
> 
>        
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