# Has translation ever improved a book? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 13, 2014, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-translation-ever-improved-a-book/693010 "2014-07-13T19:27:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![blueslipper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5a626/32.png) [@blueslipper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blueslipper)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2014, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-translation-ever-improved-a-book/693010/41 "2014-07-21T09:17:26Z")
“You have not experienced Shakespeare until you have read him in the original Klingon.” ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2014, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-translation-ever-improved-a-book/693010/42 "2014-07-21T13:44:20Z")
Seamus Heaney’s 1999 translation of the Old English epic poem _Beowulf_ is, by all accounts, very, very good (and of course, few people can read Old English these days). I haven’t read it myself. ---
**Author:** ![kellner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c2a13f/32.png) [@kellner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kellner)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2014, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-translation-ever-improved-a-book/693010/43 "2014-07-21T14:13:01Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > (And, IIRC Shakespeare has quite a good reputation for working well in translation, particularly in German and Russian, I believe.) Oh yes, he has been extremely popular in German ever since the second half of the 18th century. That’s also when the most important translations, sometimes classics in their own right, were created. In the present day there are more Shakespeare performances in Germany than in the UK. His sonnets, on the other hand, are not really amenable to translation and therefore an obscure matter for serious anglophiles. ---
**Author:** ![Clark\_Cello](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58f4c7/32.png) [@Clark\_Cello](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clark_Cello)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2014, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-translation-ever-improved-a-book/693010/44 "2014-07-21T21:27:35Z")
“Jimmy James: Capitalist Lion Tamer” was much better in Japanese than in English, or at least much better received. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2014, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-translation-ever-improved-a-book/693010/45 "2014-07-21T22:24:01Z")
It’s been asserted that David Mitchell’s translation of _The Reason I Jump_ beautifies the language, but slides into interpreting what the author, who has autism, meant. Since the book was already originally written by facilitated communication, there are a few different reasons to question the veracity of the translation. However, I gather that it reads better in Mitchell’s version. ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2014, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-translation-ever-improved-a-book/693010/46 "2014-07-23T04:55:13Z")
Marcus Aurelius’s _Meditations_, translated by Gregory Hays. All the other translations I’ve seen seem overly fussy and have a stuffy, stick-up-the-ass tone. Hays’s version was a revelation to me; it is succinct, direct, modern, and absolutely clear. Admittedly I haven’t read the original Koine Greek, so I can’t say if it’s an improvement, but it’s light-years better than any of the other translations out there. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-translation-ever-improved-a-book/693010.md?page=2)