The first is the celebrated translation by Scotsman C.K. This discovery raised a basic question: If you don’t read the original language, how is the common reader to know just which translation comes the closest to capturing the essence of what the author was originally trying to convey?įortunately, when it comes to Marcel Proust and In Search of Lost Time, there are really only two major translations for the English language reader to choose from.
Not only was the language in each translation slightly different from the other, but the meanings themselves were subtly different.
John had four different translations available, so we read the first paragraph of each, trying to determine which version to recommend. A mutual acquaintance came in, looking for a copy of Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons. The pitfalls of translation selection became obvious to me a number of years ago, when I was hanging out at my friend’s bookstore in New Orleans. I have to admit that I’m both extraordinarily picky and extraordinarily insecure when it comes to picking the “right” translation of a foreign language writer into English.
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