Comparing translated books to their original publications.
Growing up, I constantly had to look for book translations when it came to reading. While I would occasionally read books written in my native Ukrainian, most of the series I grew up reading originated in English-speaking countries.
Artemis Fowl, the Edge Chronicles, and the Stainless Steel Rat were all series I initially read through a translation from the original language.
However, not all of the book series stuck with me. While I remained a fan of most of them, I was reminded of the importance of a good literary translation, as continuing the books in a different language felt very different. This got me thinking about the importance of understanding the author’s intended idea through the language they used.
Wanting to make sure I was judging the books fairly and understanding that they weren’t simply poorly written, I dove into an experiment, picking a book to reread in English and my mother tongue and comparing them.
That, however, confirmed my suspicions, as the translated book brought me warm memories of exploring the fantasy world of the Edge Chronicles as a kid. The English version was simply a good book.
Diving deeper into the subject, I’ve realized that translating a book into a different language has many more factors than I imagined, including adapting the names of characters and places that might not work with the new audience, re-evaluating the book’s rating and genre, and redesigning the cover art.
Those factors can make a great book enjoyable to more people or send red flags to the target audience.
For example, The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson has been translated into over a dozen languages, and the book’s cover has also been adapted in most of them, depicting elements from the story — except for the Polish translation. Its cover, which illustrates a generic armor-wearing knight, confused old fans and certainly turned away potential new ones.
A more personal example would be Harry Potter. As a child, I read the series in Ukrainian and was unimpressed. I struggled to finish even the first book, as the translation described the world quite boringly, and I was repulsed by the action sequences.
Giving it another try as a teenager now well-versed in English, the book read much easier, making a lot more sense and flowing more smoothly.
Conducting a similar experiment more recently, I’ve compared Alexandre Dumas’ Count of Monte Cristo in English and French, its original language.
Coming to the same conclusion as I did earlier with books from my childhood, the English version made so much more sense. However, I found the descriptions in the French one lengthy and oddly expressed.
Most of this being personal experience, I believe that everyone should give a translated versus original book a try to figure out for themselves what language they prefer to read in.
