My college professor said "don't trust the translation" about a Japanese novel - she was right

I bought a popular English version of "Kokoro" by Natsume Soseki and it felt flat. Then I found an older translation from 1941 at a library sale in Portland and the emotion was completely different. Has anyone else noticed how much a translator can change the whole vibe of a banned classic?

2 comments

2 Comments

richardknight28d ago

I grabbed a 1957 translation of "The Tale of Genji" at a swap meet in Eugene and it read totally different from the version my professor used. The old one had long, flowing sentences that made the love stories feel deep and sad, but the newer one chopped everything into short paragraphs that felt like a plot summary. My professor always said the translator's choices with tone and rhythm can kill the soul of a banned classic, and he was spot on.

tessa39428d ago

Have you ever tried reading passages from both translations side by side? It's wild how the old one pulls you into the sadness with those rolling sentences, like when Genji is pining after a woman who's already gone. The newer version strips all that longing down to just "he missed her" and moves on. I bet your professor meant that tone is everything, because the rhythm of those long sentences forces you to sit with the emotion. Short paragraphs just tell you what happened, not how it felt. Makes me wonder what other classic books have been totally changed by a translator's style.