Between two lungs

I'm currently reading the third and final English translation by Reg Keeland of Swedish writer Stieg Larsson's Millenium Trilogy. Although I don't speak Swedish, I do believe that Reg has done an excellent job on, what is very much a literary masterpiece, albeit in a genre I am not familiar with and which I would not normally enjoy. I'm interested in these books for a few different reasons- I was introduced to Larsson's oeuvre by the first of the filmic adaptations of his novels. Which I blogged about and thoroughly enjoyed. A few points to make on this. Keeland has stated that he had little control over the titles given to the books and the films. That is, despite being the translator of the work and therefore in the most suitable position to translate the original titles of the work or to create a more apt English title, commercialism won over and the title was changed from "Men who Hate Women" to "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo". Now. That second title may be more palatable and easy to market to the masses but it conveys nothing of the story of the film/book and actually initially put me off, in combination with the terrible film poster(probably engineered by the same people behind the title), seeing the film. So. That irritated me. Second point. Whilst buying the English translation of the final book in FNAC in Porto, Portugal I was slightly horrified to see that the Portuguese translation of the book had been translated, not from Larsson's original Swedish text but rather from Keeland's English translation. I can't even explain how foolish and irritating this is. There was one and only one reason for this. The Portuguese publisher or whoever commissioned the translation into the Portuguese language obviously didn't want to pay the fees of a Swedish-Portuguese translator (most certainly a rarer language combination and one which would therefore demand a significantly higher fee) and consequently came up with the idiotic idea of just getting the Portuguese translator to work from Keeland's text, probably without ever even looking at the original novels. This is catastrophically ignorant. From reading just one page of the Portuguese book I can confirm this to, unfortunately, be the truth. Firstly a translator should have, not only excellent linguistic knowledge of his source language but also of the culture, heritage, politics, history and so on of the country or countries where the language is spoken. Secondly they must be able to write extremely well in their own language. They must be an author. They are, after all, writing a piece of literature. The Millenium Trilogy deals with Swedish society and more than any other piece of writing I can imagine it is intrinsically and profoundly linked to the country in which it takes place and the language in which it was originally written by Larsson. Keeland, having studied Swedish language and spent time in the country therefore had the task of translating not only the language, but the meaning, the context and the significance of Larsson's text and rendering it comprehensible to Anglophones, linguistically, politically and culturally. Which I believe he has achieved. And he should be commended. Now, the problem lies in the Portuguese translator, or anyone else for that matter, working solely from Keeland's text. Keeland has undoubtedly, as is the job of a translator, altered, amended and adapted the source text linguistically and culturally and targeted it at Anglophone countries. Therefore it is an adaptation. For an English to Portuguese translator, from a Lusophone country, having studied English language alongside, most likely Anglophone culture and heritage, to tackle this text is all and well if it had been written by an Anglophone for Anglophones. But there is a barrier created by the fact that the Portuguese translator, I am assuming, does not speak Swedish and does not therefore have a profound knowledge of and intimate relationship with Sweden and all thing Swedish. A translation of a translation can only be a disaster. I read an article in The Times entitled "To convey the writings of other languages is a noble and necessary art" which gives an interesting overview of translation and how important and influential it is, without most people ever realised it. I should also say, still on the topic of the Millenium Triology that I think that the treatment of Larsson's partner by his family is absolutely despicable.

In other news, I have resolved to study German again. I spent six years studying German at school and did GCSE and A-Level's in that language. I always enjoyed it and almost ended up doing a German and Spanish undergraduate degree instead of Portuguese and Spanish. In hindsight, from a financial perspective, in the translation market German is more profitable however I don't regret learning Portuguese. If I hadn't I probably wouldn't be living in Portugal now. And anyway, six years of study and various trips to Germany is an excellent foundation for further study. I'm hoping to begin to use German professionally after a period of intense study to improve and refresh my knowledge of that language. My classes will start next month at the Goethe Institut in Porto. I'm also rather tempted to consider studying a Scandinavian language, again, mostly for financial reasons, but also because I am intrigued by the culture of that region of Europe. After reading an article on Norwegian and how "easy" it is for Anglophones to learn, I am indeed considering this as a very real possibility for the next few years. We'll see. For the foreseeable future I'll be in Portugal. In fact, I can't really imagine leaving Portugal anytime soon. But studying other languages, continuing to learn more and more Portuguese every day, working, learning to play cello and travelling are all on the agenda for the near future, for me. My Algarve rendez-vous with my family is in April and before that, as mentioned below, I'm going to Marseille for a weekend. Right now, back to work for me. Translating a Belgian IT website from French into English. I'm also hoping to see Florence and the Machine, Yo Yo Ma and the Cranberries, who are all playing in Lisbon in the next few months (not together, although that would be quite amazing!). Plans, plans, plans. What are we made of but memories and plans?