Yesterday someone asked how I choose the best translation when reading a book by a foreign author. I am not sure I am the best person to ask, so I am putting forth that very question to you. In the past I really never thought about it, the question of which translation, I just bought whatever was readily available on the bookstore shelf. I think the first time I actually gave it some thought was when I decided to read War and Peace. As I was reading it with a group there was discussion as to which translation to read. I decided to set (thanks to Project Gutenberg) different editions of the book side by side and looked for which one seemed to be the best fit for me. Every reader seemed to have a different opinion, and they raised some questions/issues I hadn't even thought of. For example with W&P some famous translations of the book are by British rather than American translators and thus the language may not sound as natural to my (American) ears. I did search for other readers opinions as well. In the end I decided to choose the new Briggs translation. For myself I am not a scholar or student, so for a first reading of W&P, I just wanted something readable and not clunky. I think in some cases it comes down to small nuances in a language which I wouldn't necessarily pick up anyway not studying the text in depth. And not knowing a second language thoroughly enough to be able to read any of it in the original, I can't really say what doesn't sound right. I do think, though, if something doesn't "read well" and it is a translation, it makes you wonder if it was the same in th original language.
Sometimes I am happy to find any books by certain authors on the shelves at all. I didn't find a single novel by Colette at the bookstore last time I was there. Although I think she wrote profusely, I am not sure how much is in print here these days. I will take what I can get. My copy of Kristin Lavransdatter is translated by Tiina Nunnally who I have read is an "award winning translator", but I am not sure there are any other translations out there. So I go with what I can find in many cases. I have heard that Robert Fagles is the way to go with Homer, and Edith Grossman's translation of Don Quixote is supposed to be excellent (I have copies of all of the above). I have heard Richard Pevear (along with wife Larissa Volokhonsky) translations are also well known (they are also translating W&P slated to be released in 2008). I'm not sure who else is acclaimed--any particular translators for French novels?
If you are curious what it is like for the translator to translate from one language to another, there is an interesting article in a recent back issue of WLT-World Literature Today (a magazine I highly recommend, and many of their articles are available online--so go take a look!). The issue had an extensive set of articles on Orhan Pamuk, including one by one of his translators, Maureen Freely. She is also a published author and and I like what she says:
"As a novelist, I put great faith in the narrative trance. If it worked, the reader entered into the fictive world and shut the door behind her. It the incantation failed, or if the trance was somehow broken, the reader was left looking at the words that blocked the way."
For me a good book does exactly as she describes. She goes on to say about translating:
"I became responsible not just for the text but for the proper understanding of its context, because the distance between two cultures is as great as the distance between their languages."