Second translation

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Second translation , also double translation , is a term from the translation studies that a second translation of the same source text by a different or the same translators or indirect translation either of an original document on a as a bridge language referred serving third language.

Indirect translation

As double or second translation is called the Japanese studies Olaf ski Edges According to the Literaturübersetzungs- and publishing in general, a literary work that is not from its original drafting language, but from a different language version, which is itself a translation , translated is in the target language has been. The third language that the second translator uses as the source language is called the bridge language . Depending on whether there are further intermediate stations, it may also be a third or fourth translation.

Indirect translations via a bridging language are necessary if, under reasonable conditions, no translator can be found who can produce a direct translation from the original source language into the desired target language, or if a text is not available or only incompletely available in the original language.

Reasons and problems

If a certain work is to be made available in the national language that was written in a rarer or exotic language and for which translations into common languages ​​such as English already exist, it is often more cost-effective for those involved to have an existing translation into the desired one Translating the target language rather than having a direct translation from the original language. The phenomenon occurs more than average with certain language combinations, for example when Japanese literature is translated into European target languages ​​other than English, where an existing English translation is very often used instead of the original work.

According to Schiedges, one problem with this approach is that the equivalence of the second translation to the original source text cannot be checked by the second translator, who only uses the first translation as the source text and does not know the original language. Interpretive or more free translations, target language-specific adaptations or translation errors and inaccuracies of the first translator are therefore taken over by the second translator without the latter realizing that he could also translate the original into his target language in a completely different, more precise or more appropriate manner. This can lead to severe quality losses and even text corruption, which is also multiplied by second translations into several languages.

Examples

A historical example of translations via a bridge language are medieval and early modern Bible translations into the vernacular, for example also into German, whose source text in the Latin West was usually the Latin Vulgate Bible. The humanists in particular took a closer look at the Greek and ancient oriental languages and increasingly viewed this method of translation as a deficiency. With the Textus receptus, Erasmus von Rotterdam presented a useful Greek source text from the New Testament that could be used as an alternative to the Vulgate. With the rabbinical Bibles by authors such as Pratensis and Ben Chajim , useful text editions for the Old Testament came onto the market in the first decades of the 16th century . Among other things, Martin Luther in Wittenberg and Ulrich Zwingli in Zurich and their respective colleagues then created, within a few decades, the German Bible translations of the Reformation , the Luther Bible and the Zurich Bible , which can be based on the Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic Bible texts Use the Vulgate as one of many translation aids for orientation purposes only.

The example treated by Schiedges is the novel Dangerous Beloved by Haruki Murakami , whose German edition (2000), unlike earlier translations of the novel by the same author, was based on the American translation without the readership being informed. This became known in the aftermath of a media controversy between Marcel Reich-Ranicki and Sigrid Löffler in 2000 and ultimately resulted in the new translation of the novel under the new title South of the Border, West of the Sun (2013). Nevertheless, the specific difficulties in translating Japanese literature often lead publishers in Germany (and similarly in other countries) to have Japanese works transferred from an English translation into German. Many video games made in Japan are also translated first into English and from there into most other European languages. Such examples are also familiar from other literary languages. Several novels by Halldór Laxness were of Ernst Harthern not directly transmitted from Icelandic, but indirectly through Swedish and Danish translations into German. There are also numerous examples in the scientific literature: As soon as the English translation of a scientific textbook that was originally not written in English is available, the English text is often used as a template for translations into other languages.

Other meanings

The relatively open and indefinite term of the second translation is also used in other contexts related to translation studies. This can also mean a procedure for checking the correctness of a translation. A text is transmitted by two independent translators and then checked whether both versions have the same meaning. To verify a translation, the method of back-translation from the target language back into the source language by a third translator can alternatively be used, especially if the user of the translation who wishes to have it checked does not speak the original target language.

literature

(This is: David Bellos ' indirect translation of Ismail Kadares Dosja H into English from the French translation Le Dossier H. by Jusuf Vrioni )

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Olaf Schiedges: The phenomenon of the second translation . P. 275.
  2. ↑ Olaf Schiedges: The phenomenon of the second translation . P. 283 f.
  3. ↑ Olaf Schiedges: The phenomenon of the second translation. Using the example of a novel by Murakami Haruki . Pp. 287-299.
  4. ^ Family row in the quartet. In: Der Spiegel 29/2000, July 17, 2000, p. 119.
  5. ↑ Simone Hamm: Murakami newly translated: softer, rounder, less flippant. In: Deutschlandfunk , January 27, 2014, accessed on June 21, 2017.
  6. ↑ Olaf Schiedges: The phenomenon of the second translation . P. 286.
  7. ↑ Guðrún Hrefna Guðmundsdóttir: Halldór Laxness in Germany (=  contributions to Scandinavian Studies . Volume 8 ). Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main etc. 1989, ISBN 3-631-40767-X , p. 42 .