I think one of the things that makes me nervous about this project is the complete lack of guidelines. I just have my own head, and that's it... and this is my first novel translation. I mean, more specifically, how far can I push it away from the literal translation before being accused of just making stuff up? I think that mostly I tend to err on the side of being too literal. That way, I won't offend the author and whatnot. But check out this review of a translated novel that I just read on the Globe and Mail:
In English, Rioux’s writing withstands – but at times only barely – translator Jonathan Kaplansky’s literal-minded approach which cleaves too often to the letter rather than the spirit of the original, leaving us with such awkward constructions as, “The magnitude of the task exhausts me in advance,” “antipersonnel bombs that tear to pieces innocent people,” or, “Hope Mary looks daggers at her.”
This review shook me to my bones! What, you mean I actually have to think? To stretch my creative muscles? To make it sound as though it was written in English? That last one is not, actually, a unanimously agreed-upon quality in a literary translation. You know, I don't really agree with it myself. Some of my very favorite foreign novels (read, of course, in translation) are unabashedly awkward in English... which for me, only adds to their appeal, that hint of "foreignness." Understand me, though, that finding this balance of sounding-ever-so-slightly-like-a-translation-and-yet-still-being-well-written must be done with the utmost care and skill; as you can see from the review above, not everyone feels the same way.
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