Line #16 Main/GoldenTranslator


1	No translation is perfect. Every language (at least according to some anthropologists) has its own point of view or way of looking at the world. This is one of the main reasons why, whenever possible, many people try to read literary works in their original language: it's the best way of experiencing the author's original intent. Your average translator may know two languages very well, but they may lack sensitivity, resourcefulness, or just the "poetic talent" needed to make a perfect translation. [[LostInTranslation Something gets lost along the way]].
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3	But there is another possibility: that the translator is an author in their own right. There's no better translator for a literary work than another literary author, who has both the knowledge and the writerly skill.
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5	A Golden Translator is a prestigious or canonical writer in the same genre (or sometimes another genre) that translates works into their native language, perhaps even uplifting the value of the translated work to the new audience. They may introduce little variations in order to maintain or even "improve" the spirit of the original work.
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7	Contrast with BlindIdiotTranslation. Compare with TactfulTranslation for the "improving" role.
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9	!!Examples:
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11	* ''Literature/KalpaImperial'' from Creator/AngelicaGorodischer was translated to English by Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin.
12	* ''Anime/PrincessMononoke'' was translated into English by Creator/NeilGaiman.
13	* Creator/JorgeLuisBorges translated to Spanish works from Creator/EdgarAllanPoe, Creator/FranzKafka, Creator/JamesJoyce, Creator/HermannHesse, Creator/RudyardKipling, Creator/HermanMelville, Creator/AndreGide, Creator/WilliamFaulkner, Creator/WaltWhitman, Creator/VirginiaWoolf, Creator/HenriMichaux, Creator/JackLondon, Creator/GustavMeyrink, Creator/{{Novalis}}, Creator/MarcelSchwob, Creator/GeorgeBernardShaw, Creator/MaySinclair, Creator/JonathanSwift, Creator/HGWells and Creator/GKChesterton, introducing subtle variations to "improve" the works.
14	* The Argentinian author Creator/JulioCortazar translated the entire works of Creator/EdgarAllanPoe, ''Memories of Adriano'' from Marguerite Yourcenar, ''Literature/RobinsonCrusoe'', from Creator/DanielDefoe, and ''Life and Letters of John Keats'', from Lord Houghton.
15	* The awarded Argentinian science fiction writer Creator/CarlosGardini has translated many science fiction works from English (including among others works from Creator/CordwainerSmith) mainly for the magazine ''El Péndulo'', but also several novels for Minotauro Press.
16	* Creator/CharlesBaudelaire translated Creator/EdgarAllanPoe to French.
17	* Creator/MauroMantella, a comic book writer, is the Argentinian translator of ''ComicBook/TheWalkingDead''.
18	* Creator/SantiagoGarcia, a Spanish comic book author and scholar, translated several comic books to English.
19	* Creator/CesarAira, one of the best contemporary Argentinian authors, has translated ''ComicBook/{{Maus}}'' for Argentina too, even making his way to the Education Ministry press for schools and university libraries.
20	* The musical ''Theatre/ManOfLaMancha'' was translated into French by famous songwriter Music/JacquesBrel, who also played the lead in the original French production.
21	* Creator/DorothyLSayers translated much of the Literature/TheDivineComedy of Creator/DanteAlighieri into English (the rest of Paradiso was completed by Barbara Reynolds, a medievalist and Sayers' goddaughter), preserving the terza rima of the original.
22	* French playwright Yasmina Reza has had her main plays (''Art, Life x3'', and ''God of Carnage'') translated by notable English playwright Christopher Hampton.
23	* A backward example - Russian playwright Creator/AntonChekhov's major plays were all translated to English in the 1900s by Constance Garnett, but those translations are considered stodgy and many modern playwrights have translated or adapted his work, including Creator/DavidMamet, Neil Simon, and Lanford Wilson.
24	* The contemporary poet Anne Carson is also a classical scholar who has produced well-regarded translations of Creator/{{Sappho}} and the Greek tragedians.
25	* Creator/AdamMickiewicz, considered one of the greatest (if not ''the'' greatest) Polish poets, translated [[Creator/LordByron Byron]]'s ''Literature/TheGiaour''.
26	* Samuil Marshak is one of the best known Soviet writers for children. As for the translations... when he died, a heather wreath was sent to his funeral from Scotland, for his translation of Creator/RobertLouisStevenson's ''Heather Ale'' (which notably has a page on the Russian Wikipedia, but not the English one).
27	* [[Creator/HRiderHaggard H.R.Haggard]]'s ''Literature/KingSolomonsMines'' was translated into Portuguese by the acclaimed Eça de Queiroz.
28	* Creator/MachadoDeAssis, perhaps the most revered Brazilian writer of all time, translated Creator/CharlesDickens' ''Literature/OliverTwist'' and Creator/VictorHugo's ''Les Travailleurs de la Mer'' to Portuguese.
29	* One of the more famous translations of ''Literature/{{Beowulf}}'' into Modern English was a prose translation by Creator/JRRTolkien, from which Literature/TheLordOfTheRings draws some influence. Another famous translation is from the Irish poet Creator/SeamusHeaney, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995.
30	* ''Literature/TheThreeBodyProblem'' was translated from Chinese to English by Creator/KenLiu, a translation so good it won a Hugo for Best Novel.
31	* Dan Kanemitsu is appointed as the definitive translator for Creator/HideakiAnno's works, translating Anno's works faithfully to English and even writing the instances of GratuitousEnglish in Anno's works.
32	* Steve Alpert is one of Creator/StudioGhibli's translators, but he is undoubtedly one of the most important ones and he is such a close friend to Creator/HayaoMiyazaki that a character was modelled after him and voiced by him in ''Anime/TheWindRises''.
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