1Dilara86
An in-depth article in the Guardian that uses the Man Booker International as a jumping-off point to talk about literary translation, translators and the relationship between authors and translators: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/apr/06/its-a-silent-conversation-authors-...
3SassyLassy
Another article on translation, this one on translations from translations, specifically those of Ismail Kadare's works. These were often translated into French, and then the French language editions translated into English, in the absence of direct Albanian - English translations.
I posted this earlier on an RG thread:http://www.complete-review.com/quarterly/vol6/issue2/bellos.htm
I posted this earlier on an RG thread:http://www.complete-review.com/quarterly/vol6/issue2/bellos.htm
4Gypsy_Boy
>3 SassyLassy: SassyLassy:
Thanks for posting to a link to the Bellos article; I have vague recollections of reading this once, long ago. While much of what he says is interesting and even insightful, I am more than a little taken aback that his single brief mention of two translators who have translated Kadare directly from Albanian into English (Peter Constantine and John Hodgson) is that "Their work is not to be discounted." How...condescending.
Frankly, as fluid as Bellos's work is, I have noticed a difference in the translations he makes and Hodgson's work at least. I found, for example, the language in Hodgson's rendering of "Traitor's Niche" to be far superior to what is often perfectly correct but more quotidian prose in Bellos's efforts. Since I speak no Albanian I have no way to know which of them is "better" or "more accurate," but I do know that Hodgson's translation--and I am commenting on the language alone, not the structure, plot, quality of the work--struck me far more forcefully than anything in Bellos's many efforts. Nor does it favorably incline me to Bellos when I read his proud acknowledgment that he seeks "to decorate" Kadare's writing "with those classical and Shakespearean associations that seem to me to hover over nearly all he writes." Thanks but no thanks.
Thanks for posting to a link to the Bellos article; I have vague recollections of reading this once, long ago. While much of what he says is interesting and even insightful, I am more than a little taken aback that his single brief mention of two translators who have translated Kadare directly from Albanian into English (Peter Constantine and John Hodgson) is that "Their work is not to be discounted." How...condescending.
Frankly, as fluid as Bellos's work is, I have noticed a difference in the translations he makes and Hodgson's work at least. I found, for example, the language in Hodgson's rendering of "Traitor's Niche" to be far superior to what is often perfectly correct but more quotidian prose in Bellos's efforts. Since I speak no Albanian I have no way to know which of them is "better" or "more accurate," but I do know that Hodgson's translation--and I am commenting on the language alone, not the structure, plot, quality of the work--struck me far more forcefully than anything in Bellos's many efforts. Nor does it favorably incline me to Bellos when I read his proud acknowledgment that he seeks "to decorate" Kadare's writing "with those classical and Shakespearean associations that seem to me to hover over nearly all he writes." Thanks but no thanks.
