Can the translation of a book be an obstacle?

Question

I have a book and I wrote it not in English. However, I have made a translation into English, a pretty good one. Will native English speakers read such a book or will they, when they see the translation, immediately realize that it is a translation and they will not feel comfortable reading the book? The translation was done by a non-native speaker – if it's an important detail.

Answer 1

I wouldn't be prejudiced against it just because it is a translation.

The problem would be a not-great translation. If as a native English speaker I am stumbling over word order, or missing bits of grammar or incorrectly used words or awkward phrases, I will put the book down.

For me, a book has to read seamlessly or I cannot sustain the immersion of being in the scene. Every time I am reading and stumble over a sentence, I drop out of immersion and imagination and into analytic proofreader mode. Just a typo does that to me, not to mention twisted grammar or cultural allusions I don't get.

As a non-native speaker, you might think the English translation is good, but I might think it is awful.

You need a native English speaking editor (which you might find at a reasonable price on Fiverr) to read your opening scene, and perhaps a dozen other pages from throughout the book, including action, emotional, scene description, definitely dialogue and conversation and flag for you any awkward writing that gives away you are not a native English speaker.

Then you'll know the quality of the translation.

To be clear, it is not a prejudice against any foreign culture, it is just a matter of whether the writing breaks my immersion or not. If it does, it is too much work for me to read; I read stories to escape into that immersion.

Answer 2

To achieve a good translation, it is almost always necessary to have a native speaker of the target language edit the translation. It is better to have the translation done by a native speaker, but that costs money. I have had a very painful time with non-fiction written in German and translated into English by the authors.

The sentence structures were often difficult to follow, the terminology and figures of speech were strange, and the whole experience was unpleasant. I persisted because I wanted to know about the subject, but I would not have read it for enjoyment.

Answer 3

I don't believe the translation as such, if the translation is good, will present an obstacle. But the actual or percieved cultural origin of the text might. I'll give you an example for what I mean.

I've been reading mostly science fiction and fantasy for a long time now. I first encountered the genres in my teens through translations (into German) of American and British authors. As my proficiency in English grew, I eventually switched to reading the texts in their English original. Sometimes I encountered science fiction or fantasy in German or (as translations) by a French, Spanish, or Russian writers.

Until about a decade or so ago, I unvariably disliked all the non-American and non-British science fiction and fantasy. Science fiction and fantasy novels from each of those European cultures were quite distinct from English novels (and from each other). Their stories, characters, and narrative style was specific to their cultural background and that culture's literary tradition. And those styles and themes and characters didn't appeal to me.

I did switch from reading English novels in German translations to reading them in the original English, because often (but not always) the German translations weren't very good. But as long as I wasn't able to read them in English, the fact that they were translated didn't keep me from reading them. Now that I can read in English, I do avoid translations, not only from English but from other languages (that I don't speak) as well. But originally that wasn't an obstacle for me. What was an obstacle were the different cultural backgrounds. I actually found that novels from Australia and South Africa, few as they were, differed thematically from the British and American ones and I tended to avoid them, even though they weren't translations.

This has changed a lot by now. Russian, German, and French science fiction and fantasy has been "Americanized" thoroughly and they read (or, in the case of movies, view) just like novels (or movies) from American and British authors. I have been reading some German SF&F recently and enjoyed it a lot. I have yet to explore the current French and Russian (and Australian) works again, but it doesn't keep me from doing so that some of it will be translated.

But again, the requirement for a translation not to be an obstacle is that it has to be good. To native speakers the text must read as if it was written by a native speaker. For that, you need a native speaker who can write well and has been trained as a translator. Translating is a craft that requires learning it. At the very least you should get feedback on the language of a longer text sample (e.g. a chapter) from a larger group of native speakers to make sure your non-native translation is good enough. Or it will indeed be an obstacle.

Answer 4

TL;DR: Unambitious books don't lose much from equally unambitious translations. However, there are not many great books, works of art, in which language is unimportant. They need a correspondingly competent translation to minimize what gets lost in it.

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It depends a lot on what kind of book you are talking about. The majority of books, even much more so the majority of copies sold, are meant to be read once and thrown away. They are "cheap" (literally, because they only exist as mass market editions, and figuratively) entertainment. Romance novels, many franchise science fiction series, many detective stories. The main purpose of language in such books is to drive the action forward. It has not much of an intrinsic value. Not much, if anything, would therefore be lost in a quick and dirty translation: The action is what's important here.

On the other end of the spectrum are great works of literary art. In many of them, language plays a central role. Kafka, Joyce, even Kerouac. Some books modify language and make that an integral part of the story, like Tolkien's Lord of the Rings or Burgess's A Clockwork Orange. Not only is language an integral part of such books — they also tend to attract a readership to whom language is important and who appreciates masterful language.

In order to preserve the work, this latter category needs careful translation, ideally by another master of language — just not (only) the original one. Such translators who are themselves poets are rare and semi-celebrities in their circles.

Whether a translation by a non-native speaker will hurt your book depends very much on the book.

Answer 5

I’ve never seen a book that improved upon translation. The quality will inevitably diminish when reworking an original. In fact, seeing on the cover page that a book has been translated is a reliable red flag to temper my expectations for such book. Having said that, some books are so good that they’re still very much worth reading even as a replica.