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What's the worst literary translation you've ever seen?
6년 전I was just reading this fascinating article in The New Yorker about Russian translations of The Catcher In The Rye. (Here's the article in Russian, by the way: )
The author makes a lot of interesting points about how the motives of a particular translator, or translation industry, can impact the way the readership perceives the work.
In the case of The Catcher In The Rye, the most popular translation was a Soviet-era version that distorted a lot of things, but was well-received. A more modern version, intended to be more loyal to the source material, was panned, and is no longer in print.
I think about this sort of thing a lot when I'm reading bilingual editions of Spanish books. For example, I've got a collection of poetry by Pablo Neruda, with Spanish on one page and English on the next. In many cases, I disagree with the translator's choices. Then again, if I understood the reasons for those choices, I might feel differently.
Thoughts?