[Lexicog] When Semantics Doesn't Matter

[Fritz Goerling]

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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