Reading case

On Book's Translators

Hello everybody!

As a comics translator myself and a holder of a bachelor’s degree in linguistics, I could talk endlessly about my side of the work. But it becomes even more fascinating when we look at it from the reader’s point of view.

Since English is my second language, and I’m not a native speaker, I sometimes struggle when reading English books and end up reading them in my mother tongue. As for the Asian literature I love so much, I read all those books in English - meaning, they’ve already been translated from Korean or Japanese.

Recently I've started recognizing the same names in the translator credits and started thinking just how important a role translators play in shaping our experience of a book. We perceive the entire story through the lens they give us.

For example, there was once a trend in Russian translations: not only translating names and titles literally, but also adding extra epithets, emotional cues, and even meaning that wasn’t in the original text. One of the funniest discoveries I made was when I reread The Lord of the Rings as an adult after reading it dozens of times in the childhood - half of the book is basically a translator's invention! Look at this passage:

  1. "И Боромир, превозмогая смерть, улыбнулся." - "And Boromir, defying death, smiled."
  2. "Уста Боромира тронула слабая улыбка." - "A faint smile touched Boromir’s lips."
  3. "Тень улыбки промелькнула на бледном, без кровинки, лице Боромира." - "The shadow of a smile flickered across Boromir’s pale, bloodless face."

Same happened to the Harry Potter series, though over time, translation styles have improved and modern versions are much more faithful.

But let me say: these creative translations influenced my perception tremendously! They added a fairytale-like tone that made me fall in love with the stories. Maybe if they’d been more literal, I wouldn’t have been as captivated as a child and teen.

On the other hand, as a translator myself, I am strongly against altering the style or adding some extra meaning that wasn't in the original. Although sometimes it's difficult to make something sound amazing as it is in the original, translator's work is to do their best.

This brings me to the incredible work done by translators of Asian literature! I can't read korean or japanese, so I can’t compare the originals to the English versions and I have to trust the translators, but I can tell that the books feel so heart-warming and light that I’m willing to forgive any small deviations.

I totally fell in love with the Eric Ozawa's translations of "Days at the Morisaki Bookshop" and "More days at the Morisaki Bookshop" and his afterword note! I could tell how much he loved the work and how invested he was.

Same goes for the "Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop" translator - Shanna Tan, thank to whom I was able to discover this masterpiece and I’ll absolutely be checking out the other works she’s translated!

This whole shoutout to translators - and my growing list of personal favorites - is a little reminder for you to pay attention to them! They are the invisible bridges and paths connecting our hearts to books we’d otherwise never be able to read. Just imagine how deep and wide their influence runs across the world of literature! I am left with only praising words and hope that one day I can also get enough qualifications to translate a book.