Comparing the Beginning and Objective Writings in Interpretation

When we come to dwelling upon the art of literary translation, we to a certain extent try to muse upon the disorderly manner in which it has been exercised over the years. And even though rendering one idea into a different language has always presented a fundamental part of national literatures and the turnover between them, it has always been treated with certain suspicion. Thus we come to realize that the characteristic that translation exhibits more than any other features altogether is its amazing and sometimes confusing variability.

Generally, literary translation uses various stylistic devices in order to keep to the original as close as possible. Taking this fact into account we cannot but observe that if one decides to study in the fields of national or international literatures, foreign language teaching or even history, he/she will inevitably have to study translation as part of the chosen major syllabus. It would be unserious to design any academic course syllabus without the proper insertion of translation as one of the main disciplines. For example French orientalist and archaeologist Antoin Galland used a Marriage Certificate Translation worker in his rendition of The Thousand and One Nights into French. This turned it into a ninetieth-century best-seller which inspired further versions by writers like Coleridge, Stendhal and Tennyson.

What was sought for by France's literary tradition in the nineteenth century was the expertise of famous authors who had profound knowledge of the foreign texts. Unfortunately, few of them had linguistic training in the source languages. Moreover, weighing the strengths and weaknesses of the target text in comparison to the source one was not an established practice. Judging the quality of the translation developed further in the nineteenth century in Europe. Interestingly enough, the authors who had not received adequate training produced the best works. Not only did they translate foreign authors, but they also wrote prefaces to their translations, reviews and criticism. They even went further to promote them in the culture of the source language. A number of prominent authors did nothing else but translated foreign texts which brought them enormous popularity. For example Franz Kafka used Portuguese Translator in his translation of Joseph Conrad, whereas Masolino D'Amico applied Italian Translation skills in his rendition of Hemingway.

For centuries many poets and novel writers had to take part in the workshop called translation. Translation has been a sort of spiritual transcending to the heights of literary fame. Usually, when an author translates a certain work he/she is in dialogue with the translated counterpart. The most important factor is by no means the linguistic truthfulness. The translating author can be seen as a scientist in a laboratory carrying out the experiments the translated work provides him/her with. Thus Vladimir Nabokov, for example, employed his Cleveland translation services expertise in translating Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll as well as his own work Lolita, which was originally composed in English. Consequently, various new linguistic and grammatical forms were discovered and appropriated by the target language. Besides, artists like Nabokov did not fail to accept the difference of the source language. With all due respect to any national culture, it would have been poorer in forms had it not been for the influence brought by the target language.