Tuesday, January 16, 2024
A Compromise
J.P. Postgate, Translation and Translations: Theory and Practice (London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1922), p. vi:
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Translation is in essence a compromise, and its course a zigzag. Its deviations from the straight the Translator with singleness of purpose will reduce to a minimum, while the free 'Verter' with one eye on the reader and the other more than half on himself will be tempted to extend them till they correspond to the large vistas of Beauty and Truth that these obliquities of vision can command. Such a one may 'vert' as much and as freely as he pleases; but if he seeks the humble title. of a 'translator' he must change his methods or renounce his claim.Id., p. 3:
By general consent, though not by universal practice, the prime merit of a translation proper is Faithfulness, and he is the best translator whose work is nearest to his original.
