Dear List,

Fellini once took a film company to court for defamation. It had produced an English dubbed version that was an insult to the artistry of his Italian original. And I vaguely remember reading that Nabokov took up writing in English because the first English translation of Camera Obscura was so flawed.     

Hugs & kisses,

Tom

 

On 2016-02-26 00:54, Hen Hanna wrote:

    I'd appreciate help on any of these questions about VN and translation.

 1.  Is there an anecdote about VN checking a sample translation
          done by a translator,  finding it poor and firing the translator?
      I have not found such an episode in
           [Vladimir Nabokov : The American Years]  by  Brian Boyd.

 2.   Are there similar anecdotes involving other authors?
             I just read one about Alexander Pope, but it is not
                quite what I've been looking for
                  (because the translator Pope hired was cheating).

 3.    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translation
      >>>  Comparison of a back-translation with the original text is
                     sometimes  used as a check on the accuracy
                     of the original translation <<<

    This makes sense in theory, but  a translation would have to be
                   really poor  for a back-translation check to be useful.
         Was back-translation actually used by VN or someone else?

   Thank you.   HH

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