Comments | fatalit: Translating TC

fatalit

Translating TC - the first hurdles

Jul 02, 2007 01:23

I'm planning to devote some of the journal space to solving problems with translating The Charioteer. It's gonna be a long process so please don't ask me how much I still have to do. All of it. A year may not be enough.
Please help me if you can.

The first questions:

1. Which EDITION should I choose to translate? The 53 edition is the original, ( Read more... )

Comments 16

Just my own opinions... greenlady2 July 2 2007, 05:53:59 UTC

1. The 1953 edition is the one I own. I've read about the changes made in the later edition, and I don't think they're an immprovement, in most cases. The 53 edition seems more detailed, the later edition tighter, perhaps. It may be easier to translate because of that, however.

2. 'Spud' is a name for potato. It makes me think of someone brown, friendly, dependable and familiar. A combination of appearance and character.

3. Laurie rhymes with 'sorry'.

Re: Just my own opinions... fatalit July 2 2007, 08:37:19 UTC

Thank you very much! Especially for the "Spud" part - that aspect I didn't even think about. And Ralph... That's unexpected! I'll certainly use some help from a native speaker to transliterate the name.

Re: Just my own opinions... greenlady2 July 2 2007, 09:15:02 UTC

You're welcome.

As for the 'Ralph' bit, yeah, that's something to check into. Here in Canada we tend to pronounce it the way Americans do -- the way it's spelled. And I could be wrong about the British way of pronouncing it. That would make a difference if you wanted to be really authentic.

Re: Just my own opinions... greerwatson July 3 2007, 06:15:35 UTC

I'm no expert on "Ralph", but my impression is that the characters in this book are more or less on the cusp of the transition. That is to say, if they had been born ten or fifteen years earlier, then it would definitely have been "Rafe". Ten or fifteen years later (and up to the present), then most British people would use the spelling pronunciation, just as people in Canada and the States do.

Which leaves our Ralph in phonetic limbo, I suppose.

Is there a Russian equivalent in terms of the name? Because obviously some of the names simply translate. (Andrew and Alec come to mind as obvious examples.)

Actualy, are there other names of which you are uncertain? A lot of the people are called by nicknames, but some of these are just abbreviations of regular names (e.g. "Sandy"), while others aren't (e.g. "Spud"). Do you need help sorting the names out?

And even though you didn't ask... greenlady2 July 2 2007, 06:30:13 UTC

... As I understand it, though I could be wrong, the English pronunciation of 'Ralph' rhymes with chafe, or strafe. As if it were spelled 'Rafe'. I think that's right, but a native English person could maybe enlighten me.

my_cnnr July 2 2007, 09:52:36 UTC

1) the 53..without a doubt...having come to it after living with the US edition about 30 years, I felt I was reading a new book...the characters are better revealed, the environment is richer...please - the '53!

2)greenlady's potato reference is correct, but there's an 'Irish connotation that comes along with it, too, I think...the red hair, his name (which though greerwatson will want to try to thwack me for this should really have been spelled with the apostrophe) - were the prompts for that nickname

3)Laurie/sorry...in the 2005 CBC there's a discussion of the pronunciation of Ralph...the decision was that to Ralph's contemporaries would have used a long "a", rhyming Ralph with "safe"...tonight I'll have a go at finding the links for you

Pronouncing "Laurie" greerwatson July 3 2007, 03:57:18 UTC

In British English a distinction would be made between the vowels in "Laurie" and "sorry", but it's fairly subtle. (This distinction is not made in American English, which has fewer vowel distinctions when the vowel is followed by "r".)
It's more a difference in length, than articulation. "Sorry" has a short vowel, "Laurie" a long one. Both have rounded low back vowels.
Do you know the International Phonetic Alphabet? I could try putting it in terms of those symbols.

It's definitely not the "oh" sound.

Re: Pronouncing "Laurie" fatalit July 3 2007, 13:26:45 UTC

Thanks! It's OK without the phonetic symbols, I was asking just to make sure where the accent is and that there are four sounds. There is only one way to put these four sounds into Russian, and it'll be "Лори" (l-o-r-i)

"Spud" greerwatson July 3 2007, 04:22:42 UTC

The word "spud" is a slang term for potato. And here's the Irish connection:

During the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the potato (originally from South America) became a staple of the Irish economy, and the principal food eaten by the peasant farmers. It was the potato blight, which destroyed the crop and led to famine, which resulted in the mass emigration of hundreds of thousands of poor Irish people to North America in the mid to late nineteenth century.
Because the Irish ate potatoes (and poor Irish ate little else), potatoes became strongly associated with Ireland.
Spud-the slang term for potato-therefore became a common nickname for people who were Irish, or part Irish, or seen as having some connection with Ireland.

Now, in Laurie's case, he's half Irish. (His father is clearly an Irishman from the way he speaks. Irish Catholic, actually.)
Of course, the people at school never met his father; but then the name Odell should have had-or maybe once had, or at least might have once had-the ( ... )

Thread 10

mlygia July 6 2007, 02:19:49 UTC

In the translation for the Portuguese none of the main characters' names was translated. In the case of Laurie a small footnote was introduced the first time in that " Spud " was mentioned. I think that as the characters and the time in that happens the history are very representative of a certain "British" way of life , that is the best solution.