This whole discussion is just going to get me reading Ada again. The entire novel is an extended series of puns and interlingual word play. Imagine trying to translate THAT into, say, Chinese...
I just finished reading a translation of The Analects of Confucius. I think I can imagine that

I plan on re-reading Ada sometime in the near future. But first, a few other works that I want to read in order to reimagine certain thoughts. Too many "easy" works recently.
Illusions fall like the husk of a fruit, one after another, and the fruit is experience. - Narrator, Sylvie
Je suis méchant.
Je suis méchant.
Julian Barnes on translation
- 18/11/2010 05:49:37 PM
1214 Views
That's a very interesting article. Though it does sound like he'd never be happy.
- 18/11/2010 08:06:09 PM
843 Views
That was a long article.
- 19/11/2010 07:05:12 PM
771 Views
Re: That was a long article.
- 19/11/2010 09:59:24 PM
755 Views
Yeah, I think English translations on average are better than those in smaller languages.
- 19/11/2010 10:16:44 PM
892 Views
On balance, I'm glad I read the Steegmuller translation when I read the novel.
- 20/11/2010 05:14:42 PM
701 Views
Vas-tu faire s’enculée, Camille!
- 20/11/2010 05:26:08 PM
786 Views
If you don't mind a few grammatical corrections of your swearing...
- 20/11/2010 05:42:57 PM
814 Views
- 20/11/2010 05:42:57 PM
814 Views
It was a quick and dirty rendering
- 20/11/2010 05:53:13 PM
735 Views
And I didn't order from France. It's a US-based company that I bought it from. *NM*
- 20/11/2010 05:54:55 PM
331 Views
I love Pleiade editions
- 21/11/2010 12:14:14 AM
736 Views
How tall are they, out of curiosity?
- 21/11/2010 12:50:57 AM
878 Views
Not tall
- 21/11/2010 09:59:55 AM
772 Views
I got my books today.
- 23/11/2010 05:38:20 AM
973 Views
Re: I got my books today.
- 23/11/2010 10:33:10 AM
789 Views
Regardless, if Pleiade is the best France has to offer, their book industry is awful.
- 23/11/2010 07:17:13 PM
1041 Views
Re: Oh Authorial intent.
- 21/11/2010 02:07:27 AM
865 Views
Like hell it's about authorial intent.
- 21/11/2010 05:40:22 AM
788 Views
Re: I didn't even read it, I guessed based on the author's initials.
- 21/11/2010 01:37:40 PM
980 Views
So I take it you missed the whole part about Nabokov's translation of Eugene Onegin.
- 21/11/2010 03:28:14 PM
733 Views
Re: Yes, I missed all of that. Such a conclusion clearly follows from my previous response. *NM*
- 21/11/2010 03:57:16 PM
417 Views
Actually it does. Your responses are just cheap tricks, not discussions. *NM*
- 21/11/2010 04:44:21 PM
336 Views
Re: Cheap tricks?
- 21/11/2010 10:45:39 PM
825 Views
Barnes' article has little to do with authorial intent
- 21/11/2010 11:37:25 PM
772 Views
Why didn't you translate je ne sais quoi?
- 21/11/2010 11:46:23 PM
832 Views
- 21/11/2010 11:46:23 PM
832 Views
Because I didn't feel like it?
- 22/11/2010 01:14:31 AM
776 Views
- 22/11/2010 01:14:31 AM
776 Views
I think it is more about the "authentic experience" than about intent.
- 21/11/2010 10:01:57 AM
769 Views
