A publisher that gives you a lot of time to work! I have done some literary translations out of certain European languages into my own, and there is not much time to sculpt a really powerful translation when the publisher wants the whole novel done in 3 months or so, and of course during this time I will be juggling this job with other jobs, because literary translation by itself doesn't pay the bills. Most other literary translators I know have the same complaint. Words like "sweatshop" are used to describe the industry, and you definitely feel that publishers, at least in my country, don’t believe that the general public really cares about quality; the publishers just want to crank out the content as fast as possible.
Often the classic translations across European languages – Joyce’s Ulysses, or verse translations of Dante’s Commedia, or Shakespeare, or the Greek playwrights, etc. – were made over the course of a few years, and I envy anyone who had a secure relationship with a publisher where they could take their time on the translation but still know that it would be published in the end and they would be fully paid for it.
I don't do literary translations, but I have done plenty of technical translations from Japanese to English. The biggest mistake I see novices make is trying to do a literal, word-for-word translation. It never works because the language structures and cultures are too different.
The key to a good translation, in my mind, is understanding the source language and the content well enough that you can write a good target translation that reads as though it was written in the target language to start with. The point of translating something is to convey an idea, not a list of vocabulary words and grammar structures.
Were you paid for the translations? I'm interested in learning more about technical translations as part-time work.
I've translated some articles from Russian to English, though I don't know Russian and instead relied on Google Translate combined with domain knowledge for phrases translated incorrectly.
I'm a little disheartened to see Pevear and Volokhonsky not mentioned. As an amateur in the field of translation, perhaps my understanding is weak, but, having read multiple translations of several Dostoevsky books, I've always seen their work as head and shoulders above others'. I do find that each translation comes with its own insights and I'm glad to have read multiple, but I still think they deserve the recognition they've been receiving.
Obligatory plug for Le Ton Beau de Marot, by Douglas Hofstadter. He explains his accidental fascination with the translation of a simple short minor poem from Renaissance French into English. He experimented with a few different approaches to translating it (preserve the rhyme? the meter? the avuncular tone? write it in Shakespearean-style English because it's old?) and then began to challenge his friends and colleagues and students to make their own translation. The act of translation is a beautifully subtle one, built on decisions of what elements of construction, theme, presentation, meaning, context to preserve, adapt, or abandon. It's also a personal tale of a difficult time in Hofstadter's life. I found it moving and enlightening. Much recommended!
Hofstadter talks with a lot of different translators, including the much-beloved translator of Stanislaw Lem's works, Michael Kandel. Kandel's rendition of the poem of Trurl's Electronic Bard is rightly famous. The ever-astonishing Marcin Wichary (a native speaker of Polish) reproduces, and discusses it, here: https://medium.com/@mwichary/seduced-shaggy-samson-snored-72...
A publisher that gives you a lot of time to work! I have done some literary translations out of certain European languages into my own, and there is not much time to sculpt a really powerful translation when the publisher wants the whole novel done in 3 months or so, and of course during this time I will be juggling this job with other jobs, because literary translation by itself doesn't pay the bills. Most other literary translators I know have the same complaint. Words like "sweatshop" are used to describe the industry, and you definitely feel that publishers, at least in my country, don’t believe that the general public really cares about quality; the publishers just want to crank out the content as fast as possible.
Often the classic translations across European languages – Joyce’s Ulysses, or verse translations of Dante’s Commedia, or Shakespeare, or the Greek playwrights, etc. – were made over the course of a few years, and I envy anyone who had a secure relationship with a publisher where they could take their time on the translation but still know that it would be published in the end and they would be fully paid for it.