Reading in Translation Day 1

There’s something exciting albeit challenging about reading books that have been translated into English from another language. Translations provide opportunities to sample the reading pleasures of another culture, maybe even another time. Let’s start with something simple, reading fiction that was written in a language other than English and translated into English for an Anglo audience. (US, Canada, UK, Australia, etc.). 

 I read a book translated from Danish. It was supposed to be humorous, a parody of life in rural Denmark. Did I get all the humor? No way! But I could tell what the author was poking fun at, or I think I did via the translator. Most intriguing for a book entitled “The Land of Short Sentences” by Stine Pilgaard, translated by Hunter Simpson (NY, London & Amsterdam: World Editions, 2022) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59425628-the-land-of-short-sentences.  I found the title was a sly poke at the physical layout of the book and the long, complex sentences.

For this blog series, I’ve been reading books written in European languages and translated for an English reading audience. I’ve been surprised at how much I’m enjoying reading books I’d never have picked up on a regular library ‘shopping’ trip. The books aren’t written for an American audience, but for a European one. Wow! That sounds snooty and pretentious but it’s true. These books are literary, contain wry or sly humor, or can be parodies that an American audience might not get. An excellent translator will pick up on the nuance and humor and convey it in such a way that American audiences get it. At least, that’s the hope. It’s also possible that many of the cultural references will be missed.

Idiom is often a problem in books that are translated. The translator needs to be fluent enough to get the nuance of the idiom and be able to shift the vocabulary so others get what the author is trying to say. Many English language readers get British, American, and other Anglo slang and idiom, but do they get the French slang? Or the German? 

Stay tuned for my next adventure "reading in translation."