Subject: Re: bananafish-digest V1 #64
From: Anna Safar (franny@graffiti.net)
Date: Sat Mar 04 2000 - 11:17:09 EST
> Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 08:09:18 -0000
> From: "Scottie Bowman" <rbowman@indigo.ie>
> Subject: Sergeant Rilko
>
> I'm always having these tremendously original thoughts.
>
> But. It just occurred to me. How about: translation
> tends to be impossible & the translation of poetry is
> absolutely impossible?
>
Well, as my mother-tongue is Hungarian my first experiences with Salinger were in Hungarian as well... To be candid, in English I've read only Franny and Zooey and am reading Catcher... Though, I would say the translation matches the original work, but these are VERY literary translations and I don't know how much these guys were working on it. It just occured to me nowadays, because I'd like to translate some Salinger too, at least give it a shot, but I got really discouraged when I started reading it and trying to think about a right Hungarian equvalent of each sentence, which corresponds with the original language semantically and in style as well, and also giving you the same feeling. It's a tough job for sure. And the translator has to know their own language and literary traditions very well and besides they also have to be writers themselves I think.
As for poetry, it's even harder... impossible maybe. If it's a good work it can stand as a poem on it's own and mirror the original. But never can be perfect.
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