The problems with translation

[abka]

This semester one of my classes in 19th c. French symbolism. It includes artists you probably know such as Gauguin, van Gogh, Seurat, Munch, and Klimt and others you might not such as Redon, Moreau, and Hodler. (Note Munch, Klimt, and Hodler are not French.)

For class we're reading some 19th c. French poetry. We have a retired French literature prof. auditing the class (she and her husband founded the art history dept. in the 60s, she is a cool lady). Anyway I don't read poetry regularly, but rather enjoy it when I do. Here is Baudelaire's Correspondances which I liked so much I thought I'd share (I'm assuming it's quite famous already.) My French is only okay, so they gave us translations, but since the translations are so bad, they gave us three English versions. Just underscores the need to read everything in the original. (I apologize for missing some accents, my computer has some problems with them.)


La Nature est un temple ou de vivants piliers
Laissent parfois sortir de confuses paroles;
L'homme y passe a travers des forets de symboles
Qui l'observent avec des regards familiers.

Comme de longs échos qui de loin se confondent
Dans une ténébreuse et profonde unité,
Vaste comme la nuit et comme la clarté,
Les parfums, les couleurs et les sons se répondent.

Il est des parfums frais comme des chairs d'enfants,
Doux comme les hautbois, verts comme les prairies,
--Et d'autres, corrompus, riches et triomphants,

Ayant l'expansion des choses infinies,
Comme l'ambre, le musc, le benjoin et l'encens,
Qui chantent les transports de l'esprit et des sens.


#1
The pillars of Nature's temple are alive
and sometimes yield perplexing messages;
forests of symbols between us and teh shirne
remark our passage with accustomed eyes.

Like long-held echos, blending somewhere else
into one deep and shadowy unison
aslimitless as darkness and as day,
the sounds, the scents, the colours correspond.

There are odours suculent as young flesh,
sweet as flutes, and green as any grass,
while others--rich, corrupt and masterful--

possess the power of such infinite things
as incense, amber, benjamin and musk,
to praise the sense' raptures and the mind's.

#2
Nature is a temple from whose living porticoes
Cryptic utterances at times are heard;
Man, through groves of symbols, walks observed:
Familiar glances watch him as he goes.

As prolonged echoes from a distance blend
In unions somber and profound--
As light and darkness liquidly surround--
Color, sound and fragrance correspond.

Some prefumes are as the cool flesh of a child.
The green of lawns, the sweetest oboe's voice,
While others, overpowering, corrupt and wild

Diffuse throughout infinities of space
Intoning choirs of incense which extol
The raptures and delights of sense and soul.

#3
Nature is a temple of living pillars
where often words emerge, confused and dim;
and man goes through this forest, with familiar
eyes of symbols always watching him.

Like prolonged echoes mingling far away
in a unity tenebrous and profound,
vast as the night and as the limpid day,
perfumes, sounds, and colors correspond.

There are perfumes as cool as chlidren's flesh,
sweet as oboes, as meadows green and fresh;
--others, triumphant and corrupt and rich,

with power to fill the infinite expanses,
like amber, incense, musk, and benzoin, which
sing the transports of the soul and senses.

Comments

[mrsjadephoenix.livejournal.com]

Thanks for sharing. I agree that it's frustrating sometimes not being able to understand something in its original language. When I took French briefly we read some simple poetry and I always felt like it sounded fine in French but frankly strange if I actually translated it back to English. Likewise, after taking several years of Latin I felt I was really coming to understand it, and I now prefer really literal translations of Latin to pretty, flowery ones, because they just "feel" more Latin to me, whereas I think most people given the choice would pick the latter because those are easier to read. Every language really has a different mindset.

This applies to foreign films too... The language barriers become markedly apparent to me when I watch something in Chinese that my mom understands, because a subtitle will come up on screen and she'll often say things like "That's not a good translation of what that means." But then I'll ask her what a better translation would be, and despite the fact that she started learning English as a schoolgirl in Hong Kong and has been speaking primarily English for the last 30+ years, she won't be capable of giving me one. She'll usually screw up her face in thought for a few seconds before shaking her head and saying, "There's nothing in English that explains that." Now, I doubt that this is really, strictly true - I suspect that she's probably just unaware of the best way to explain the concept in that direction. Probably if I asked someone like nvogt he'd be able to give a better approximation because he's used to having to decipher things that way. Then again, not being fluent in both languages I really can't say.