Like-Blog
Presenting you the most interesting translation solutions
Why Like-Blog? Now, first of all, this blog is a blog that you should like (and read regularly) – at least, if you are interested in translation. Then, the topic discussed here is one in which the meaningful likeness between a text and its translation in the language pair English-German plays a key role. On this page, I will take a close look at some interesting translation solutions that I have come across in the course of my work as a translator and translation scholar.
A translation solution is only as good as the arguments that support it. This means that any translation criticism, whether positive or negative, needs to be justified. The quality of a translation solution shows only when we compare it to other possible translation solutions in a given translation situation. Therefore, a translation critic should not only say why a translation solution is bad, but also demonstrate what a better solution might look like. I will try to stick to these principles of translation criticism. So if you have any questions regarding my line of argument or if you disagree, please, let me know your opinion by phone at +49 4171 6086525 or by e-mail to bittner@businessenglish-hamburg.de. So much for the introduction. I hope you’ll enjoy reading this blog!
Understand (May 2022)
A Tennessee school board has voted to remove the graphic novel “Maus” from the curriculum due to concerns about profanity and an image of female nudity in its depiction of Polish Jews who survived the Holocaust. Art Spiegelman, the author of Maus, called the school board “Orwellian” for its action. Then he added, “I also understand that Tennessee is obviously demented.” (source: CNBC.com, 26 January 2022)
On 27 January 2022, ntv published a German version of the news: Art Spielman, here, refers to the school board as “orwellianisch” and then says, “Ich verstehe auch, dass Tennessee offensichtlich dement ist.” These translations are not satisfactory.
The expression “orwellianisch” strikes me as an inappropriate word formation that reflects English language influence. There are, it is true, German adjectives ending in -ianisch – indianisch (American Indian), gregorianisch (Gregorian), venezianisch (Venetian) – however, adjectives derived from the name of a person usually take the suffix -sch. The Duden has “orwellsch” and “Orwell’sch” as variant spellings.
The analysis of the second translation is more complicated. To begin with, the quotation “Ich verstehe auch, dass Tennessee offensichtlich dement ist” does not make sense. If we took Art Spiegelman at his word, he would have been saying that he shows understanding for the fact that Tennessee is demented. However, the intended meaning is: Given the way the school board is behaving in this case, one must inevitably conclude that Tennessee is obviously demented. The verb “understand”, here, does not have its most common meaning of “verstehen”; rather, it refers to the assumption that a fact is the way it is because of another fact. A possible translation would be: Außerdem ziehe ich daraus den Schluss, dass Tennessee offensichtlich dement ist.