topics: |  fiction | german | classic | nobel-1999

Fine points of translation

A new translation is planned for the 50th anniversary of this book, coming
up in 2009, and at the meeting convened for this,  some of the
shortcomings  of the earlier translation by Mannheim came up, but nothing
very pointed:

Clearly, Grass finds the Ralph Manheim version at the very least inadequate,
but nobody was really willing to put it down. ...
Among Grass' main complaints: that Manheim chopped up his long
sentences. Despite pleading with him, Manheim wouldn't give in, saying that
American audiences couldn't handle Grass' sentences -- while Grass noted that
this destroyed the rhythm of the text, especially where he used a short
sentence or sentences after a long one for effect. ([Breon] Mitchell -- one-third
finished with his translation -- has more faith in American readers, so
expect considerably longer -- and closer to the German original -- sentences
.....)

A problem that recurs at several points in the text is Grass' use of East
Prussian dialect, as when Oskar's mother says she knew it would a boy, even
though sometimes she had thought it would be a girl, using a dialect-form of
the word 'girl' at that point. Mitchell had it as 'girl' in the version he
read -- for now, he noted, still not satisfied with it --, explaining that he
had tried 'lass' but then when reading it aloud found that "a lass" sounded
too much like "alas" ..... He also noted that Manheim had also been aware of
the problem -- though his solution had been 'kitten' (A for effort, but boy o
boy ...). (I'd be tempted by 'lassie', though that also has some wrong
connotations.)