This Is Why I Don't Like Translations:
You never know what you actually get to read.
A few days ago I saw that my dad was reading a Jules Verne book in English. I asked him why he didn't read it in Swedish, becuase the original language is French and then you might as well read it in Swedish when you don't know French well enough to read it in it's original language. He told me he didn't trust books translated to Swedish from French, because most of his Jules Verne books in Swedish had been shortened, even the one I read a few weeks ago.
I took a look at the book (Jorden Runt På 80 Dagar), and it says it's "översatt och bearbetad av Henrik Wranér", which means "translated and worked on by Henrik Wranér".
Of course it's been worked on, the language has been changed from French to Swedish! The thing that disturbs me is that they really don't warn me. The book looks like this:
Nothing whatsoever about any shortening.
This is what I see when I open it:
See, I think the word bearbeta doesn't really say shorten. Maybe that's just me. But I really think if you shorten a book it should be announced with big bold letters on the cover. It's just not cool to hide it.
In other news, I've been sick, which means I've read a lot, so I finished Eragon a couple of hours ago and I'm working on the review. Started Washington D.C. (or All American Girl) just because I love the way Meg Cabot writes. I don't know if I'm remembering wrongly, but I feel like the Swedish translations of The Princess Diaries were better...I'm not sure, I read them a while ago.
Also, I'm thinking of ordering a big stack of books soon. But my first priority is Hank Green's So Jokes.
That's it, I'm going back to reading (and coughing xO). DFTBA!
A few days ago I saw that my dad was reading a Jules Verne book in English. I asked him why he didn't read it in Swedish, becuase the original language is French and then you might as well read it in Swedish when you don't know French well enough to read it in it's original language. He told me he didn't trust books translated to Swedish from French, because most of his Jules Verne books in Swedish had been shortened, even the one I read a few weeks ago.
I took a look at the book (Jorden Runt På 80 Dagar), and it says it's "översatt och bearbetad av Henrik Wranér", which means "translated and worked on by Henrik Wranér".
Of course it's been worked on, the language has been changed from French to Swedish! The thing that disturbs me is that they really don't warn me. The book looks like this:
Nothing whatsoever about any shortening.
This is what I see when I open it:
See, I think the word bearbeta doesn't really say shorten. Maybe that's just me. But I really think if you shorten a book it should be announced with big bold letters on the cover. It's just not cool to hide it.
In other news, I've been sick, which means I've read a lot, so I finished Eragon a couple of hours ago and I'm working on the review. Started Washington D.C. (or All American Girl) just because I love the way Meg Cabot writes. I don't know if I'm remembering wrongly, but I feel like the Swedish translations of The Princess Diaries were better...I'm not sure, I read them a while ago.
Also, I'm thinking of ordering a big stack of books soon. But my first priority is Hank Green's So Jokes.
That's it, I'm going back to reading (and coughing xO). DFTBA!
Comments
Paddie said:
This "project" of yours sounds really fun :D
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