DO translations kill the soul of the book

many of the masterpieces of the world have been written in different languages other than the languages we have known.

if there were no translatiosn we could not have read tmany of thsoe populra classic or other otehr masterpieces

But often it is found that a much talked baout book looses its meaning aprtly because of the wwords chosen in the translation. sometimes the most authentic of the translations give a misguided image of what the author actually wants to present

so what do u think guys? do translations mostly kill the soul of the book or they save and enhance the image by spreading the messege to eveywhere

some succeed in retaining the essence of the original well.
One Example which comes to my mind of an EXTRAORDINARILY good Translation is That of Irmaos Karamazovi ie: The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevskii translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.

But many on the other hand utterly ruin it. a Translation shouldn't be LITERAL. The translator should read thru the lines and present the true essence well in his translated version.
There may be many examples here..

But all said and done, i depends on the translation and the kind of book that is being translated.

Originally posted by: its me tan

so what do u think guys? do translations mostly kill the soul of the book or they save and enhance the image by spreading the messege to eveywhere

Well it depends from book to book and writer to writer.. Some people who translate work do kill the essence the soul of the book and present the book in an entirely different manner while some like many of the shakespeare's works translation manage to retain the story and the essence and help in making the story avalaible to more readers!😳

when i raed is aw it depends on the translator largely
soemtimes he may choose to do a literal word to word translation, it gives a feeling of the priginal a good example is some of kiplings works were translated in bengaloi by manindra dutta and he succeeded in keeping the soul,intact all htough it sa owrd to word translation
sometimes the word to word translation kills the book
aain sometimes if we do the transaltion of the innermeaning, without going word to word-the readers feel alienated, and its a task on those who have read the original

doing translation, very few writers can restarin himself/herself from putting a little of his thouights into the traslated work, whoch makes the tranlationa work of his own too, soemtimes it is exceedingly well, sometimes it gives rise to compelxities
like whenthe vedas and upanishads are translated into common spoken language, different scholars interpret them in their own way, when forein scholars interpret them tehy try to match them with their own concepts-and it makes a some huge difference in meaning fromthe original

yeah, i agree with everyone. It depends on how its translated. Most of the time it kills the book though. But sometimes its even better than the original 😃

I really dont think that translation kills the soul of the book!!!!coz it really and fully depends on how it is translated!!!!! 😊
I myself read many translated and original books and find them both interesting😛and enjoy my reading!!!!!!!!!!!
sometimes its true that original version is better then translation!!!!!!!!!but it also depends on reader how you read and understand it!!!😉

Lotus.😉