Witchchild
New Member
I've read a few books that were translated from their original language into English over the years, but not many. Sometimes there are oddities that occur in translation that make a story difficult to follow, or cultural differences that lead to misunderstanding, or disregard for the importance of certain events. I haven't totally shied away from translated books, but they have been a minimal portion of my reading.
Lately, I have decided t rectify this. This past weekend I got to work in my favorite used bookshop in exchange for a big bag of books. (that I got to pick out, naturally) I picked up a couple of Dostoevsky and 3 by various Asian authors; A Dark Night's Passing; by Naoya Shiga, Dream of the Red Chamber; by Tsao Hsueh-Chin and, last but not least: The Scholars; by Wu Ching-Tzu. Has anyone here read any of these?
If anyone here reads translated books, what do you look for in a traslation? How do you avoid picking up a "bad" translation? How do you think, in general, translations stand up to the originals? I'm just curious what you think.
~Witch
Lately, I have decided t rectify this. This past weekend I got to work in my favorite used bookshop in exchange for a big bag of books. (that I got to pick out, naturally) I picked up a couple of Dostoevsky and 3 by various Asian authors; A Dark Night's Passing; by Naoya Shiga, Dream of the Red Chamber; by Tsao Hsueh-Chin and, last but not least: The Scholars; by Wu Ching-Tzu. Has anyone here read any of these?
If anyone here reads translated books, what do you look for in a traslation? How do you avoid picking up a "bad" translation? How do you think, in general, translations stand up to the originals? I'm just curious what you think.
~Witch