I read the first three chapters of Manchette's Le petit bleu
de la cô´¥ ouest with the English translation (Three to Kill) to
hand, just for kicks. (Yeah, that's how I get some of my
kicks.)
There were several passages missing from the English. One
time the guy goes outside for a smoke, but in English he
doesn't smoke. Another time the description of the dashboard
was truncated. My memory's a little rusty, but you get the
idea.
(OT: I've seen similar, even bigger omissions in the French
Harry Potter books.)
Although sometimes it's legitimate to cut repetitive phrasing
that seems overdone in the target language, I've always
wondered whether the translator simply left out tricky bits
(this sometimes seems to be the case), left things out in
haste which were never caught because the editor only reads
the translation (not with the original), or lines were cut
for cost reasons. Perhaps a single page that would have
necessitated a new signature with seven blank pages was
trimmed. Or perhaps each chapter was supposed to start on a
right-hand page, but the publisher didn't want lots of blank
left-hand pages. That would mean snipping here and there for
length. (A French translation is usually 10-15% longer than
the original English. An English translation is usually
10-15% shorter than the original French.)
I've never seen compensatory "extras" at the back of a book,
though.
Karin
At 08:23 AM 19/10/2004 +0200, Anders Engwall wrote:
>Karin mentioned the feeling that occasionally
"something is
>missing" in translation. Well, sometimes that has
literally
>been the case.
>
>Consider the opening of Jim Thompson's THE
GETAWAY:
>
>
>Carter "Doc" McCoy had left a morning call for six
o'clock,
>and he was reaching for the telephone the moment the
night
>clerk rang. He had always awakened easily and
pleasantly; a
>man with not a regret for the past, and completely
confident
>and self-assured as he faced each new day. Twelve
years of
>prison routine had merely molded his natural
tendencies into
>habit.
>
>"Why, I slept fine, Charlie," he said, in his amiably
sincere
>voice. "Don't suppose I should ask you the same
question, eh?
>Ha-ha! Got my breakfast on the way, have you? Fine,
attaboy,
>You're a gentleman and a scholar,
Charlie."
>
>
>Now, look at the Swedish translation (RYMMARNA,
1977):
>
>
>Carter "Doc" McCoy hade beg䲴 v䣫ning till klockan sex,
och
>han str䣫te sig efter telefonen i samma ö§¯®blick som den
ringde.
>Han hade alltid lä´´ fö² ¡tt vakna och så§ varje dag an
med
>tillfö²³©kt. Tolv å²³ f䮧elserutin hade bara gjort det till
en
>vana.
>
>"Jo, jag har sovit gott, Charlie," svarade han med
sin godmodigt
>allvarliga rö³´® "Man det har fö²³´å³ inte du, va? Var
hygglig
>och skicka upp min frukost. Vackert, du ä² en riktig
gentleman,
>Charlie."
>
>
>Notice that this appears to be shorter than the
original. This
>is indeed the case. A retranslation back to English
yields
>something like:
>
>
>Carter "Doc" McCoy had left a morning call for six
o'clock, and
>he was reaching for the telephone the moment it rang.
He had always
>awakened easily and faced each new day
self-assuredly. Twelve years
>of prison routine had merely turned it into
habit.
>
>"Why, I slept fine, Charlie," he said, in his amiably
sincere voice.
>"Don't suppose you have, eh? Got my breakfast on the
way, have you?
>Fine, you're a real gentleman, Charlie."
>
>
>And it goes on like this, cutting corners. I suppose
the novel was
>shortened to make way for the pornographic appendix
that appeared
>in this book line at the time.
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 19 Oct 2004 EDT