Quote:
Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru
There is a difference between translating for comprehension based on the variances in language, idioms, customs, etc., and changing words because of contemporary sensitivities regarding the use of language. This book is still marketed as Mark Twain's, is it not?
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This is interesting, because I think it would be impossible to translate something completely to another language. Two different translators might compose something very different, also the era, when they live, does affect on translations. So, they do change from the original.
Sometimes I've noticed the translators have used much too modern expressions.
With very little knowledge I have over the subject, I can tell the word
neekeri - meaning nigger - appears in the form
neger for the first time in a Finnish book published in 1771. Today it has quite efficiently been weeded out of public use, replaced with equivalents to 'black' or 'dark-skinned'. This has also derived to other changes like the name of a popular children's game called 'Who's afraid of a black man" is now often "Who's afraid of a green man/iceman"... I wouldn't use the Finnish word 'black',
musta, either to be politically correct.
I don't know, what would happen, if they publish new translations. They might follow the newer versions here as well.
So, am I changing my mind a bit about this... If one thinks of them as newer versions of an old story, as long as the old versions can still be found and they aren't hidden or burnt, why not...
