{"id":21899,"date":"2013-10-09T09:19:07","date_gmt":"2013-10-09T14:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=21899"},"modified":"2013-10-09T16:05:42","modified_gmt":"2013-10-09T21:05:42","slug":"nyt-what-do-you-look-for-in-modern-translation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2013\/10\/09\/nyt-what-do-you-look-for-in-modern-translation\/","title":{"rendered":"NYT: What Do You Look for in Modern Translation?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This, two pieces by Daniel Mendelsohn and Dana Stevens at the NYTimes, is very good: “What Do You Look for in Modern Translation<\/a>?”<\/p>\n

Mendelsohn on accuracy:<\/em> “But while insufficient accuracy is a problem, so, in a way, is too much accuracy.”<\/p>\n

And on sensitivity to formal considerations:<\/em> “While it\u2019s often impossible to recreate elements like rhythm, rhyme and enjambment, to ignore them is another kind of betrayal.”<\/p>\n

And on texture:<\/em> “Good translators work hard to bring across the feel of the original writing.”<\/p>\n

And on tone:<\/em> “Tone is everything… Clytemnestra is not<\/em> Joan Crawford.”<\/p>\n

Stevens on two recent translations of Homer: “In their eagerness to make Homer accessible to impatient 21st-century ears, both new translations sometimes opt for speed and directness at the cost of nobility.”<\/p>\n

Mendelsohn is right on the mark on the limits of any translation. Though talking of another context, his words could be taken as a critique of Liturgiam authenticam<\/em> for trying to do the impossible: “Every text is, to some extent, a bafflement to its translator, because every language, like every writer, has characteristics that can\u2019t be ‘carried across’ \u2014 which is what ‘translate’ means \u2014 into another tongue, another culture.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Every text is, to some extent, a bafflement to its translator, because every language, like every writer, has characteristics that can\u2019t be ‘carried across’ \u2014 which is what ‘translate’ means \u2014 into another tongue, another culture.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[24],"tags":[2614,2613,106,431],"class_list":["post-21899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-translation-new-missal","tag-dana-stevens","tag-daniel-mendelsohn","tag-liturgiam-authenticam","tag-new-york-times"],"yoast_head":"\nNYT: What Do You Look for in Modern Translation? 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