I’m a great fan of the Daily Literary Quote which I have on the first page of my iGoogle. Everyday there are wonderful, quotable quotes from writers of all nationalities. A little while ago there was a quote from Yevgeny Yevtushenko, a Russian poet:
“Translation is like a woman, if she is beautiful, she is not faithful; if she is faithful, she is not beautiful.”
Having struggled with translations myself, I know how painfully true that can be. A few days later another quote, this time by the French poet Paul Verlaine:
“Baiser ! Rose trémière au jardin des caresses. - To kiss ! Hollyhock in the garden of caresses”
See what I mean? A rose trémière sounds so much more romantic than a hollyhock!
5 comments:
I may not be beautiful, but I'm faithful as hell!hahaaaa...Happy Sunday sweetie!hughugs
Having read several translations of a few things, it's amazing the difference they can make in the joy of reading!
alan
Beauty and faithful. Nice comparison. Cool blog and Keep it up.
:-)
Insurance Agent
Great post! It is so true! Give the same sentence to 3 different translators and you get 3 different translations!
http://www.morrotech.blogspot.com/
Donna: Me too!
Alan: It's not just words that are translated...
Bedz: Thanks
Bacchus: Rob and I have argued over translations in the past, I know only too well.
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