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Previous Thread Next Thread Print Thread Translations #169785 08/31/2007 7:39 AM Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 631 Hydra addict Hydra addict Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 631 I know some of you are translators. Please to explain: I just finished reading Straight is the Gate by Andre Gide, translated into English by the despicable Dorothy Bussy. Surely the only logical reason for producing an English translation of a French novel is so that English-speakers who cannot understand French may read it. So why, why does Dorothy Bussy choose to leave untranslated from French the poetry quoted by characters; poetry which bears importantly on the rest of the novel, and in some instances runs over a page, a page-and-a-half in length? Not a single line of the 100 or so quoted is made penetrable for the hapless anglophone reader. How can this possibly be justified? Doesn't the fact of purchasing an English translation of a French novel speak for my French-language abilities? Why make an exception for poetry, which if anything will be harder to understand than prose? Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Translations Hydra #169791 08/31/2007 1:21 PM Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 11,613 Louisville, Kentucky Jackie Carpal Tunnel Jackie Carpal Tunnel Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 11,613 Louisville, Kentucky Sorry, can't answer your question, but I can say that she was a member of a family that I was considerably less than impressed with, in my readings by and about Rupert Brooke. I know that the Bloomsbury people were not the whole world, but: mercy, I don't think it says very much good about society when it not only permits but actively encourages (through laudatory accolades if nothing else) a bunch of people to do nothing but focus on themselves and their innermost thoughts, philosophies, etc. (Sorry for the redundancy, but I couldn't think of a way to make laudatory a noun, and accolade alone wasn't as strong as I wanted to declare.) Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Moderated by  Jackie  Hop To General Topics ------  Information and announcements  Q&A about words  Wordplay and fun  Words and languages in schools  Miscellany  Weekly Themes  Looking for (writers, speakers,... (Old) Weekly themes. (have been... ------  Words from medicine  Beheading words  Meta-words  Words from classical mythology  Animal Safari  Words with unusual etymologies  Eponyms or words derived from p...  Loanwords from German  English as a global language Print Thread Switch to Threaded Mode Show Likes Link Copied to Clipboard View Profile Private Message Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary View Profile Private Message Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary

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