I’m trying to read De moordclub (op donderdag) which is a Dutch translation of The Thursday murder club. It feels like a slog to me because the translation is a bit too… stiffly following the original English text, which completely ruins the Dutch reading flow. I mean, while reading what those people in the book are saying to each other I can think of a thousand other words I’d have used that’d make more sense for them to say. I even shook my head at one convo, which is bad mojo.
In my opinion, a translator should feel comfortable to go out of bounds a little with the translation so long the original idea is still intact but where the reading feels more natural to the language used. Right now I don’t have the illusion that the translator has actually read the book and is trying to think themselves in the roles of those characters. It feels very jarring because the English style of writing and word choices doesn’t always fit the Dutch flow. It is just annoying.
My mom’s bought this Dutch version (which I’m trying to read), and I wonder if she’s going to enjoy the story as much as I did with the English version.
#Books
@trinsec I’ve done some English-Dutch and Dutch-English translation work and I definitely recognise what you’re describing.
It is exactly as you say: a translator should not stick too literally to the original text but rather try to express the meaning as naturally as possible in the target language. A translation that reads like “no native speaker would say it that way” is almost not a translation imo.