50 Outstanding Translations from the Last 50 Years

The Literary Saloon points me to: 50 Outstanding Translations of the Last 50 Years.

I certainly won't quibble with the inclusion of Barbara Wright's courageous rendition of Exercises in Style, but I will say that if ever a book is crying out for a new translation, this is it. Wright's language may have been correct when she made her translation in 1958, but much of it just seems completely off-base now. I'd like to see a new translation, one that uses period language that has stayed a little more relevant than the words Wright chose.

Another thing about Wright's translation: it's all in British English! That's, of course, fine if you're English, but I think American readers deserve a translation of this work that relies so heavily on slang written in an idiom that they find more natural.

And lastly, Wright (perhaps inevitably) took numerous liberties with her translation--if anything, Exercises is, page for page, as good a collection of the untranslatable as you're likely to find. Well, I'd like to see someone else's creative intellect take a shot at solving some of the problems that Wright tackled.

For more on Queneau, see here:

• My discussion of Queneau's sexual romp set during a fictitious Irish rebellion We Always Treat Women Too Well
• My discussion of Queneau's first novel (and proclaimed his best by many), Witch Grass
• Queneau fanatic Derik Badman on Queneau's novel Pierrot Mon Ami
• A comic built to resemble Exercises in Style

Comments

[Rose]

For good translators find them in www.cosmotranslations.com

[Jon]

Funny, I just picked up a nice copy of this at a used bookstore while in Greece, but after reading maybe a third of it I was regretting I hadn't held out for a newer translation (hers is fun... but pretty distracting.)

But I guess there isn't one... odd.

And that Matt Maddin comic sounds great -- Cheers.