/lit/ - Literature

>>22901037
What are you talking about? No, I said Tale of Genji and I meant it.
>>22901047
>You are a languagelet who thinks good prose is something you know when you see?
You're an ESL, anon. I'm not trying to be rude, but I don't think you can judge English prose properly and make concessions for "grammatical awkwardness" when your own post is as riddled with solecisms as it is.
>>22901053
Of course it's a half-baked rant. I just finished it and wanted to talk about it on /lit/.
>>22901104
I'm not sure why you think I'm trying to demonstrate my own greatness when I'm only complaining about a translation I didn't like.
>>22901143
I read it in Japanese first, which is why I know how bad it is. It strikes me as extremely odd to try to translate the rhythm and feel of Kawabata's prose into English. These two languages have virtually nothing in common; they're as separate as any two languages can be. Trying to be faithful to the Japanese when translating to English is the worst thing you could do. Really, I'm sick of the philosophy of faithfulness in translation. I can't imagine how anyone who knows more than one language could ever think that it's a good idea. In most cases, accuracy comes at the cost of beauty and real connection. It comes down to this: If I wouldn't defend an original English language work if it were as poorly written as this, why should I accept it just because it's a translation? At least when it comes to The Tale of Genji, what Waley's lacks in accuracy, he makes up for with beauty. In all honesty, however, I wouldn't even say his translation is all that beautiful, nor so inaccurate as people make it out to be. Of course, I can't say that with too much confidence, because I read a modern Japanese translation of it (現代語訳), not the original, but regardless I didn't feel like Waley ever committed all those cardinal sins I'd heard he did. Only, instead of doing what Tyler did and essentially leave everything up to footnotes, he at least tried to work some meaning into the text itself.