[HerenIstarion]

Thanks for an invitation, Guinevere [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

My mother tongue is Georgian, but at the time when I've read Tolkien books there was no Georgian translation in existence (there is one of the Hobbit, which I've found terrible, but that will be dealt with later), so I've read those in Russian (I knew no English back then)

There are several Russian translations, as (if I recall correctly) Akhtene mentioned up there. The Hobbit is marvellous - all the Englishness is kept in place, the names are not rendered at all (except some obvious, like The Water and The Hill). Among several LoTR translations, however, the best for my liking was the one by Muraviev and Kistakovsky, which is so 'russified' it is hard to guess the author to be an Englishman. They have made enormous number of blunders along the way (to the extent that rendered names have lost their original meaning altogether), but (IMO) they grasped the principle. The Russian of their translation is very much alive, it gives the feel of the language and the book as the whole.

And whatever puritans of translation may say, (even to the extent when I have to contradict Professor himself) that is the way to translate Tolkien. He's a bit like Lewis Carroll - one can not at once transfer the feel of the book without changing it. Or, more precise example would be poetry - translator of verse must be a great poet oneself, and still never success in translating exactly what was written - he's rather creating new poem, and out of modesty calls it the old name.

But it is impossible to do when translating into Georgian. As I've said, only the Hobbit is translated into it thus far. I know the people who've made the translation, and respect them very much, but I find their translation horrible. (There may be a bit of envy in it as well, for I’ve made the Hobbit translation as well, (which is not published) and think it better, but I like to think it is no so). But closer to the point – Georgian being unrelated to English whatsoever, even unrelated to Indo-European language family at all, it is quite hard to preserve its Englishness. I have made two editions of my translation – one without changing nomenclature (but with a glossary and comments), and another with everything rendered (including Gandalf’s name and even the title itself, for the word ‘hobbit’ does not fit well into the book after the change of everything). If I set aside the edition number 1 (with comments and no changes in nomenclature), I have a story which has nothing to do with Tolkien, only the plot repeats his. Hola [img]smilies/confused.gif[/img]

But the Hobbit is easy. If I choose to go on with LoTR in a way of edition number 2, another problem arises. I simply do not possess the knowledge of my own language and mythology similar to Talkien's in English. So my translation (or, rather, retelling of the story in Georgian medium) would be imperfect, (as well as any translation which are discussed up there).

But the feel of reality of Professors books is achieved by the virtuous use of language(s).

Conclusion – it is impossible to translate Tolkien into other languages and achieve same scope of reality. Simple retelling of the plot does not do the trick So the sensible way is to preserve everything as it is, and give all possible comments and samples ‘how would this sound in Georgian (Dutch, German, French etc etc) either as footnotes or in the end of the narrative. For even imperfect rendering will hook up readers attention, and those to fall in love with ME are going to read it in English anyway (even when this means they have to learn English first – me being the sample)

yours truly,

[ October 14, 2003: Message edited by: HerenIstarion ]