AS or "just me"?

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Okay, I do a lot of translations (languages are a special interest) and I'm very perfectionistic about them, but one thing I'm getting as feedback is that I am too literal and exact with my translations. I don't try to make them sound "poetic" or "pretty" and I'd rather the words reflect accurately the original than that they "sound elegant" as one person put it. It even irritates me when people do that (put in words that aren't there or change or delete them, just to make it "flow better" in their opinion). I mean, the words in the translated version are never going to be as poetic or pretty as the original version, and to me, it's better to lose some of that than to lose the literal meaning of the words. After all, if I'm translating a poem by Eminescu into English, and I sacrifice the literal meaning to make it sound 'poetic' in English, isn't that no longer purely Eminescu but rather some hybrid of the poet and me?

Anyway, what I'm struggling with is how much of this is my AS making me rigid and literal and how much of it is a legitimate opinion. If it's the AS, then I may want to try to "stretch the comfort zone" so to speak, but if it's not, then why not do things the way I like them?

Opinions are welcome...

~Kate

I am not a translation expert, but think it is a matter of taste- do you love this poem more for it's sound or for it's meaning? You sacrifice what you have to to preserve what you think is most important.
On the other hand, sometimes the literal word-for-word meaning of a phrase is not the most important. As long as you can preserve the deep meaning of the original poem, I think it is best to make it flow as nicely as possible.

If you keep having people tell you your translations are too literal, you might want to heed it a little bit, just to make your poems more appealing to your audience. But other than that, I think it is a matter of your taste.

Hi there,

There's no such thing as a direct or literal translation, because the meaning that words in a particular language carry depend so much on cultural context. Once you change the cultural context, much of the original meaning is lost. So, translation is always going to be partly a creative process. If it's a creative process, you might as well make your translation beautiful. In translating something you are never replicating the original piece of writing, but always creating something new.

I don't know if it's your AS but there are lots of non-AS people who are perfectionists.

As above. Off the top of my head there is window shopping in England and window licking in France to describe looking at clothes in a shop window. Translating literally doesn't work if there is a cultural difference.

I suppose it is what you are translating. Poems are more of an art form. If you're translating something technical it would be different.

Everyone's got a unique persona about them, Aspie, NT, or other neurologys. Even animals do.

I'm not really talking about idioms or turns of phrase, which are indeed different even in different cultures with the same language (Spain vs. Mexico, for instance). One can't do those literally...you just have to pick something that in the translated language is a similar meaning. I'm talking about just normal words, phrases, and sentences.

I tend to agree that maybe I should stretch myself a little bit and try to relax on the literalness a little bit, especially if it's a poem or something else artistic. I do think the AS may be a factor, because I get irritated when I see that other people don't translate literally (when they put wording in that is more "pretty" but doesn't reflect the original meaning as well).

~Kate

Personally, I don't think it is just the literal meaning that matters. I do agree with Seventh. I believe you have to make sure the original cultural context is put in their as well. I believe we all have a personal context or signature sorta speak. When translating things, I believe context and meanings do get lost.