Moby Dick in German

[Scott Baxter]

I may have asked this question before but does anyone know of a good, modern German translation?

Scott

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[fin john]

On the old list we had a fellow translating into German. His surname began with the letter P, if I remember right.   John G

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[Fernando Velasco]

When I translated Moby Dick into Spanish six years ago I tried to check other languages translations. So I learned that that some years back there had happened to be in Germany a controversy over a new German translation. A German publisher, Carl-Hanser Verlag, wanted to publish a new translation to supersede the then prevalent one in the German market by Alice Seiffert and Hans Seiffert (Dieterich’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1956).  They commissioned it to a translator named Friedhelm Rathjen, but upon reception considered it too radical and refused to publish it unless Rathjen admited the corrections of another translator named Matthias Jendis. Rathjen refused, complained bitterly in an article („Fährendienste. Öffentliche Erinnerungen und Bekentnisse eines selbstgerechten Übersetzers.” Schreibheft. Nº 57, September 2001) and when the publisher went ahead with the revised translation, renounced all authorship. The translation was published as an exclusive Jendis version (Carl-Hanser Verlag, 2001). Rathjen version was also published in the same year (Zweitausendeins, 2001).

Fernando

De: fin john <stein....@gmail.com>
Para: ishma...@googlegroups.com
Enviado: Sábado, 11 de agosto, 2012 3:51 P.M.
Asunto: Re: Moby Dick in German

On the old list we had a fellow translating into German. His surname began with the letter P, if I remember right.   John G

On Fri, Aug 10, 2012 at 6:40 PM, Scott Baxter <srlb...@aol.com> wrote:

I may have asked this question before but does anyone know of a good, modern German translation?

Scott

Sent from my iPod

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[Ros’ Haruo]

"too radical" in what sense?

On Sat, Aug 11, 2012 at 10:19 AM, Fernando Velasco <fvel...@yahoo.com> wrote:

... They commissioned it to a translator named Friedhelm Rathjen, but upon reception considered it too radical and refused to publish it unless Rathjen admited the corrections of another translator named Matthias Jendis. ...

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Leland Bryant Ross aka Ros' Haruo (呂須•春男)
Delegito en Seattle, Universala Esperanto-Asocio
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[Fernando Velasco]

The main problem you have to face when translating Moby Dick is the singularity of its prose, its oddness. As you try to render it in another language you have to choose between a more conventional option and a more unusual one. Given that Melville’s language was in fact unusual, it might seem that the second option is the right one. But the problem is that the oddness of Melville’s language was a very artistic oddness, and the one of your translation might very well end in nothing but clumsiness. So, most translators tend to opt for a safer conventional prose. A radical translation would be one that tries to render Melville's neologisms with neologisms in the end language or that tries to do the same with sentences hardly understandable in the source language. I still can remmember the time it took for me to decide how to translate sentences like this one:

 

Can we, then, by the citation of some of those instances wherein this thing of whiteness – though for the time either wholly or in great part stripped of all direct associations calculated to impart to it aught fearful, but, nevertheless, is found to exert over us the same sorcery, however modified; – can we thus hope to light upon some chance clue to conduct us to the hidden cause we seek?

or even more simple phrases like infantileness of ease undulates through a Titanism of power.Fernando

 

De: Ros’ Haruo <rosh...@gmail.com>
Para: ishma...@googlegroups.com
Enviado: Domingo, 12 de agosto, 2012 3:43 A.M.
Asunto: Re: Moby Dick in German

[Ros’ Haruo]

Got it.

[gordon poole]

Dear Scott:
        The person to ask is Daniel Goeske (the "oe" indicates an o with an umlaut), a German Melvilliean and good fellow whom I met way back at the Hofstra conference.
        In any case the most recent, but not necessarily the best, German translation of Clarel is Clarel: Gedicht und Pilgerreise in Heilgen Land (Oesterreich, Salzburg: Jung und Jung Verlag GmbH, 2006), trans. Rainer G. Schmidt.
        Yours,
                Gordon Poole    

[gordon poole]

Dear Fernando:
                Muy interessante! Daniele Goeske knows all the answers to Scott's question and any others on the subject.
                        Gordon Poole
At 19.19 11/08/2012, Fernando Velasco wrote:

When I translated Moby Dick into Spanish six years ago I tried to check other languages translations. So I learned that that some years back there had happened to be in Germany a controversy over a new German translation. A German publisher, Carl-Hanser Verlag, wanted to publish a new translation to supersede the then prevalent one in the German market by Alice Seiffert and Hans Seiffert (Dieterich’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1956).  They commissioned it to a translator named Friedhelm Rathjen, but upon reception considered it too radical and refused to publish it unless Rathjen admited the corrections of another translator named Matthias Jendis. Rathjen refused, complained bitterly in an article („Fährendienste. Öffentliche Erinnerungen und Bekentnisse eines selbstgerechten Übersetzers.” Schreibheft. Nº 57, September 2001) and when the publisher went ahead with the revised translation, renounced all authorship. The translation was published as an exclusive Jendis version (Carl-Hanser Verlag, 2001). Rathjen version was also published in the same year (Zweitausendeins, 2001). <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

[Scott Baxter]

Thanks Gordon, will look for info on both; I have to read Clarel one day.

Scott

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