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!
A question of style (June 2024)
Some sentence structures that are elegant in English appear unidiomatic when directly translated into German. Here is an example of such an unidiomatic translation.
In a collection of stories called “Viel mehr Hühnersüppchen für die Seele”, published by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, we find “Schatz, du setzt dich besser erst mal hin” – a story by Sheryl Nicholson, translated from the English original.
The story deals with an elderly couple who adopt a baby as a result of several coincidences. One passage in the story goes: “An diesem Abend begleitete mich Gary zu einer Lesung mit anschließender Buchsignierung. Nicht gerade ein Partylöwe, trug er die ganze Zeit seine übliche abgeklärte (oder gelangweilte?) Miene zur Schau.”
The English original in the book “Chicken Soup for the Mother’s Soul” has the following corresponding passage: “That night, Gary came with me to a book signing. Not exactly a party animal, he wore his usual calm (or was it bored?) look throughout.”
The translation is unidiomatic in that the elegant sentence construction in English, with an introductory apposition in the form of a noun phrase, is unusual in German. The concessive character of this construction, which in English is only made clear by the context, should be expressed in German explicitly using a concessive clause: Obwohl er nicht gerade ein Partylöwe war, trug Gary die ganze Zeit seine übliche abgeklärte (oder gelangweilte?) Miene zur Schau.
To conclude, not all that is syntactically possible in translation is also recommendable.