Solaris
question
Which translation should I look for?
Armel
Apr 17, 2018 08:24AM
Solaris
I suppose this is a slightly niche question...
Often, before teading a book, i like to do some 'background checks' e.g. reviews, crotiqies translations, about the author etc.
It was then that I came across a Guradian article citing the original English Solaris translation as generally badly done; it was also mentioned that the translation was that of an intermediary French translation of the book. The article concluded by stating that a new (2011) direct Polish-to-English translation, which I assume is long since out now.
Ultimately, I was wondering whether the original French translation truly is awful (to the point of not needing to be dignified with being read) or if instead most of the errors happened in the secondary translation- as, being bilingual, I would be relatively happy reading the book in French.
Of course, were the latter not to be the case, I would be equally happy to read the new English edition- I, however, am still interested in knowing if the changes are very siginficant to the point of now bringing forward the philosophical message of the book.
I am sorry for such a long post. Any help would be much appreciated :)
I suppose this is a slightly niche question...
Often, before teading a book, i like to do some 'background checks' e.g. reviews, crotiqies translations, about the author etc.
It was then that I came across a Guradian article citing the original English Solaris translation as generally badly done; it was also mentioned that the translation was that of an intermediary French translation of the book. The article concluded by stating that a new (2011) direct Polish-to-English translation, which I assume is long since out now.
Ultimately, I was wondering whether the original French translation truly is awful (to the point of not needing to be dignified with being read) or if instead most of the errors happened in the secondary translation- as, being bilingual, I would be relatively happy reading the book in French.
Of course, were the latter not to be the case, I would be equally happy to read the new English edition- I, however, am still interested in knowing if the changes are very siginficant to the point of now bringing forward the philosophical message of the book.
I am sorry for such a long post. Any help would be much appreciated :)
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The 1970 French-to-English translation of Stanislaw Lem's novel Solaris by Kilmartin and Cox is considered less accurate than the 2011 Polish-to-English translation by Bill Johnston. But your question seems to be, Which is more accurate, the Polish-to-French translation of Solaris or the Polish-to-English translation of Solaris?
Lem was good at several languages, including English and French, so he could personally evaluate many of his translators' choices. According to an interview, Lem did not like the Polish-to-French translation by Jean-Michel Jasiensko, which was published in 1964:
"I do have to admit that the outcome of most translations of my works is worse than the original. The most drastic is the English translation of "Solaris", which has been translated from a very poor French translation!"
https://english.lem.pl/home/reading/i...
I don't know whether there has been another French translation of Solaris since 1964, but from what Lem said, between the 1964 Jaisenko French translation, the 1970 Kilmartin/Cox English translation, and the 2011 Johnston English translation, the best is definitely the 2011 English one, which Lem never read but which won approval from his wife and son and seems to have been welcomed by the literary community.
To help people learn about all the different editions of translated books and find copies of them, I built We Love Translations: World Literature in English. Here's my page about Solaris:
https://welovetranslations.com/2021/0...
Lem was good at several languages, including English and French, so he could personally evaluate many of his translators' choices. According to an interview, Lem did not like the Polish-to-French translation by Jean-Michel Jasiensko, which was published in 1964:
"I do have to admit that the outcome of most translations of my works is worse than the original. The most drastic is the English translation of "Solaris", which has been translated from a very poor French translation!"
https://english.lem.pl/home/reading/i...
I don't know whether there has been another French translation of Solaris since 1964, but from what Lem said, between the 1964 Jaisenko French translation, the 1970 Kilmartin/Cox English translation, and the 2011 Johnston English translation, the best is definitely the 2011 English one, which Lem never read but which won approval from his wife and son and seems to have been welcomed by the literary community.
To help people learn about all the different editions of translated books and find copies of them, I built We Love Translations: World Literature in English. Here's my page about Solaris:
https://welovetranslations.com/2021/0...
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