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!
Comprehension is key! (January 2023)
Understanding the source text correctly is indispensable for translation. It is not enough to make up some sense on the basis of the words at hand; the translator must understand the text in detail – every phrase, no matter how specific, and every syntactic turn.
Here is another passage from Paul Gray’s article “Books: Wild About Harry Potter” (TIME, 12 September 1999): “This is not vanity or arrogance, but if you look at the facts, very, very few people manage to write anything that might be a best seller. Therefore, I’m lucky by anyone’s standards, let alone single mothers’ standards.” In this quotation, J. K. Rowling refers to her own fairytale success.
The last sentence was translated as follows: “Deshalb bin ich glücklich über jeden Lebensstandard, geschweige denn dem einer alleinerziehenden Mutter.”
This translation reveals that the translator evidently did not understand the source text. Not only is the target text in itself incoherent and contains an obvious grammatical mistake (“dem” instead of “den”), it also fails to correspond to the meaning of the source text.
For a good translation, the translator must not cling to the English original, but, having grasped the meaning of the source text, must try to render this meaning in German independently of the expressions or word order used in English. Possible solutions would be: “Im Vergleich mit anderen – erst recht mit allein erziehenden Müttern – habe ich ganz einfach Glück gehabt.” Or: “Deshalb sollte man nicht von mir auf andere schließen – schon gar nicht auf allein erziehende Mütter. Ich habe einfach Glück gehabt.”