Sean McLachlan
asked
Sue Burke:
You've translated numerous works of science fiction, literature, poetry, and nonfiction. What are the particular challenges to translating speculative fiction?
Sue Burke
Authors of speculative fiction have a habit that other authors don’t have. They like to invent non-existent things: planets, countries, animals, social relationships, technologies, and medical treatments, for example. Then they invent names for them. Sometimes they even invent languages. No bilingual dictionary will list these words. I have to re-invent them in English on my own.
Sometimes it’s not hard. The imaginary metal iandamio would be “iandamum” in English, the same way that aluminio is “aluminum.” But then there’s the imaginary island named Quyrlich. What should its residents be called?
A short story I’m working on now includes a system of symbols and abbreviated words called “Short Language.” I need to recreate it in English, adapting it to English grammatical structures and conveying the same word play as in the original. I’m not sure exactly what I’ll do, but I know it will take some time and research into English vocabulary and grammar.
I needed to do a couple of hours of research when a fantasy novel invented a menagerie of fabulous animals on the Moon: manadas de tortugarios lunarios, recuas de musarántigos luníferos, piaras de bufalústridos lunácaros, y rebaños de urubúniculos lunarésquidos. After a long visit with dictionaries and reference books about synonyms and word formation, I came up with: “troops of lunary turtlets, schools of lunamatic shrewers, droves of lunacule buffalodonts, and flocks of lunacious black vulturery.”
All authors use their imagination, but speculative fiction authors use theirs more – which means I must, too. In the end, I always hope I reach a solution that works for readers, and I inevitably learn a little more about the English language.
Sometimes it’s not hard. The imaginary metal iandamio would be “iandamum” in English, the same way that aluminio is “aluminum.” But then there’s the imaginary island named Quyrlich. What should its residents be called?
A short story I’m working on now includes a system of symbols and abbreviated words called “Short Language.” I need to recreate it in English, adapting it to English grammatical structures and conveying the same word play as in the original. I’m not sure exactly what I’ll do, but I know it will take some time and research into English vocabulary and grammar.
I needed to do a couple of hours of research when a fantasy novel invented a menagerie of fabulous animals on the Moon: manadas de tortugarios lunarios, recuas de musarántigos luníferos, piaras de bufalústridos lunácaros, y rebaños de urubúniculos lunarésquidos. After a long visit with dictionaries and reference books about synonyms and word formation, I came up with: “troops of lunary turtlets, schools of lunamatic shrewers, droves of lunacule buffalodonts, and flocks of lunacious black vulturery.”
All authors use their imagination, but speculative fiction authors use theirs more – which means I must, too. In the end, I always hope I reach a solution that works for readers, and I inevitably learn a little more about the English language.
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