Re: Translation differences?
Hello MMFan, and thanks so much for your help!
Yes, I had heard that the German translation is very good; apparently it is very faithful to the original text. Here are some specific excerpts from the English that I'm wondering about:
From "My Name is Ozymandias", where Will is being told to go to Rumney to find captain Curtis:
Zitat:
..."You will find fishing boats in the harbor. The Orion is owned by one of us. A tall man, very swarthy, with a long nose and thin lips. His name is Curtis, Captain Curtis. Go to him. He will get you across the sea. That is where the hard part begins. They speak a different language there, You must keep from being seen or spoken to, and learn to steal your food as you go."
"I can do that. Do you speak their language?"
It and others such as your own. It was for that reason I was given this mission. He smiled. "I can be a madman in four tongues."
In the translation, is the part about different languages translated literally, or has it been modified?
It's interesting that the translated name of Beanpole has kept the same meaning as the original, because the name is also a form of wordplay based on the sound of "Jean-Paul". Here's an excerpt from the end of the chapter titled "Beanpole":
Zitat:
"Can you come as you are?" I asked him. "Going back would be risky."
"I am ready now." He put a hand out, first to me and then to Henry. "My name--I am Zhan-Pole."
He looked odd and solemn standing there, tall and thin, with that strange metal-and-glass thing on his face. Henry laughed.
"More like Beanpole!"
He stared at Henry inquiringly for a moment. Then he laughed too.
In English, "Jean-Paul" ("Zhan-pole") rhymes with "Beanpole". Since "Bohnenstange" doesn't preserve this rhyme, I'm wondering if the translator had to change this dialogue.
As to the "LEKT..ZITÄT" translation, here's what the original has:
Zitat:
...No one knew what these buildings had once been, and I think one of the things that attracted us was a sign, printed on a chipped and rusted metal plate:
DANGER
6,600 VOLTS
We had no idea what Volts had been, but the notion of danger, however far away and long ago, was exciting. There was more lettering, but for the most part the rust had destroyed it:
LECT CITY
We wondered if that was the city it had come from.
So again we have a word game, where the last part of "electricity" in English is coincidentally a word for a place: "city". My understanding of German is very poor, but it seems that "zität" means something like "capacity"... is that right? How does the translator incorporate that into the observation by Will: "We wondered if that was the city it had come from."?
Thanks!