Tinsel Vandergraph’s diary on translation history and one evening of careful, revealing comparative reading
I’ve known about both translations for years without ever actually sitting down and reading them side by side, line by line, and tonight, finally doing exactly that, the differences turned out considerably more revealing than I expected, each translator’s specific choices exposing genuinely different assumptions about the original text’s intended tone.
The First Translation’s Approach
Formal, careful, clearly prioritising fidelity to literal meaning over readability, producing prose that reads, to a modern eye, somewhat stilted but that preserves structural features of the original the second translation abandons entirely.
The Second Translation’s Very Different Choices
Considerably freer, prioritising natural English rhythm over literal precision, producing something that reads more smoothly but that, comparing directly against the original, takes genuine liberties with specific imagery the first translation preserved faithfully.
The Specific Passage Where This Mattered Most
One central metaphor, rendered almost mechanically in the first translation, transformed into something considerably more poetic but arguably less accurate in the second, a genuine trade-off between fidelity and beauty that neither translator fully resolved to my satisfaction.
Why I Think This Comparison Matters
Readers encountering only one translation likely assume they’re reading something close to a neutral, settled version of the original, when in fact every translation represents hundreds of individual interpretive choices, any one of which could have gone differently and changed the reading experience considerably.
What I’m Doing With This Research
I’m building a proper comparative piece specifically highlighting these divergent choices, hoping to make readers more aware of translation as genuine interpretive labour rather than simple, neutral transmission.
Where This Leaves My Own Reading Going Forward
I don’t think I’ll ever read a single translation of anything from this period again without actively wondering what the alternate version might have chosen differently at each genuinely difficult passage. Further diary entries continue at bohiney.com, with the original piece live at prat.uk.
SOURCE: https://prat.UK/