on their education in languages, how they get work as translators, and how they approach their translating work.Asked what makes for a good translation, the translators had varying definitions. For Sinha, a good translation “leaves the reader with the same affect, the same possibilities, as the original work does. It achieves fidelity in terms of meaning, voice, music, sound, rhythm, silence, smoothness , and several other parameters.
Croft, who prefers “translations with strong styles,” such as Damion Searls’ translations of Norwegian writer Jon Fosse, said she likes “when the translator takes liberties with the text, but in order for it to work, it has to be a good match. Otherwise it’s like casting Meryl Streep in amovie. It’s jarring, and the situation isn’t good for either the translator or the author.
Hur said that “Korean academics and journalists have this weird idea that good translations are those where translators are as ‘invisible’ as possible, and this attitude has enabled some truly flat and unreadably tedious prose in translations created by soulless linguistics nerds and professor-wannabes. I think a translation that actually sounds like someone is a good translation. A recent great example isby Jayant Kaikini and translated by Tejaswini Niranjana .