15 March 2009

Men Who Hate Women

Tomorrow I'll be talking to a reading group of mystery fans in Santa Fe (New Mexico). To prepare I've been rereading my original American translation of Millennium 1. This book is fantastic, even better than I remember. Maybe someday, after all the commercial hype is over, grad students in Scandinavian Literature departments all over the world can have some fun comparing all the versions in various languages. (They had a ball with Smilla's Sense of Snow, also a product of this translation factory...)
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6 comments:

  1. Glenn HarperMarch 17, 2009 at 10:55 AM

    Reg: How about a comparison (or explanation) of the differences between the "original American translation" and the published English translation?

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  2. Reg / SteveMarch 17, 2009 at 3:57 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. AnonymousMarch 18, 2009 at 2:34 AM

    One aspect of reading US and Australian (and other original English-language crime fiction not written by an English person - eg Scotland!) are the delightful little (sometimes not so little) aspects of use of language one learns. I have loved so many words and turns of phrase in these books. "Satdee aver" is Peter Temple's Saturday afternoon. (Peter T is a master of the vernacular as poetry.)
    This must be a hard question for translators (and publishers not publishing a book in its original language, but with an eye on their own market).
    Stephen Saterelli does a good job with the vernacular in his translations of Andrea Camilleri's books, I think.

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  4. Reg / SteveMarch 18, 2009 at 12:32 PM

    Sartarelli did an interesting article somewhere on the Web about translating Camilleri, see if you can find it.

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  5. LaurenMarch 19, 2009 at 6:27 PM

    Just to clarify: are you discussing your first translation here, which differs from both the published British and American versions?

    Someone in the office round the corner has read the Larsson trilogy in French; I've read it in German plus 1.5 books in English; a friend is halfway book 2 in Swedish...perhaps we'll be able to get together and compare notes one day!

    Maxine, I think in my family it'd be "Sat'day arvo." Similar idea though.

    It's interesting comparing different varieties of English. I was in a meeting today to discuss marking strategies for some undergraduate German-English translations, and was amused to note that I often had different suggestions (in terms of prepositions, strength of phrases etc) than the Scot I was sitting next to. (Next to whom I was sitting, if you prefer.)

    On Sartarelli (hope this is ok): http://www.panmacmillan.com/picador/ManageBlog.aspx?BlogID=&BlogPage=Subject&BlogSubjectID=27

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  6. Reg / SteveMarch 20, 2009 at 12:31 AM

    Lauren, yes, I was referring to my translation as turned in to Yellow Bird for their screenwriter. And thanks for the Sartarelli link, I'd forgotten who his publisher was.

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