Skybird |
02-28-06 01:45 PM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by SUBMAN1
Here is a quote from Jeff Cooper on the subject of translation:
Quote:
......I am not instructed in comparative linguistics, but I am told by people who are that the English language is the most explicit of any in use. In English you can say exactly what you mean, which is certainly not true of other tongues we know about. When my work is translated from English into German, for example, it usually takes more space - sometimes as much as three times as much space - to make the same point. When I was teaching through Chinese interpreters, it was pretty obvious that getting a given point across was a major undertaking.
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The problem with chinese (and other Asian languages) is that it is a "nicht-flektierende" language, and it also has not our structure of grammar, and lionear understanding of words. It is totally different and gives us Westerners some trouble. for that reason. but it also is more flexibel. The meaning in chinese is not so much found, in objective terms, but interpreted into it. That's how I understood it when I got it explained by a friend some years ago..
I have often compared poems of English and German origin, especially Sarah Teasdale, and Rainer Maria Rilke, whom I both like very much. I always had the impression, that translating a German poem into English needs more English workarounds, than a translation of an English poem into a German version. The husband of my major English teacher at school was some kind of language professional, I do not remember it excactly, the family had emigrated from Germany to the US (Florida), with that old lady (we loved her!) having returned to Germany. From that source she once told us that English and German vocabularies compared by a number of roughly 550 thousand (Englisch) to 750 thousand (German).
But who cares, both languages are soundign difefrent, but can sound very beautiful., depending on the voice of the person who speaks. Orson Welles reading Edgar Allan Poe at the beginning of the according album by Alan Parson - well, that sounds well, doesn't it?
In general I tend to think English is more pragmatic, German allows more subtle expressions. English is also a bit easier in structure and grammar, I would say.
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