Notes & queries

Can books gain something in translation? What's the job for a Jack of all trades? How do water diviners do it?
asterix notes and queries
'Ow you say in English . . . Asterix the Gaul Photograph: Allstar

Are there any examples of books being improved in translation?

The translation of the Asterix books into English by Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge bestowed greatness on those otherwise commendable works. The discussion regarding Romans (or mushrooms) in Asterix at the Olympic Games is, in English, a literary masterpiece.

Andrew Morgan, London SW15

A crucial element of the translator's art is whether to translate proper nouns and characters' names. For example, "Bag End" in The Lord of the Rings works very well in French as "cul-de-sac". But my prize for the cleverest piece of work goes to those who translated the adventures of Asterix and Obelix into English. Rendering "Idéfix" as "Dogmatix" was a stroke of sheer genius.

Roger Kershaw, Great Bookham, Surrey

Baudelaire's translations of Edgar Allan Poe are an improvement on the Wardour Street tendencies of Poe's English originals. Certainly Baudelaire's occasional mistranslations are entirely felicitous – as when, in Arthur Gordon Pym, Poe refers to a seagull tearing a "liver-like" piece of flesh from a rotting corpse: Baudelaire renders "liver-like" as "quasi-vivant".

I also found that Jacob Rabinowitz's translation of Catullus's poems was the first to bring them to life for me. The cover of my paperback edition features plaudits from William S Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, and one Thom Metzger who declares, "It's more fun than waving a dog's head on a stick at your mother."

BJ Burden, Braintree, Essex

It is very difficult to say if any book has been bettered in translation, especially as the translator is not usually the original author, leading to questions of authenticity. This problem aside, Milan Kundera's note at the beginning of The Book of Laughter and Forgetting presents an interesting point. He writes that his French translations of the text "have become, so to speak, more faithful to the Czech originals than the originals themselves".

The English translations, revised from the French, led Kundera to see his text emerge "from a miraculous bath". At last he recognises his book.

Matt McGough, London SW13

The American writer and cartoonist James Thurber met a woman who told him that she liked his latest book, but she preferred the French translation. Thurber replied: "Yes, it loses something in the original."

Richard Ehrlich, London NW5

Yes – anything by Jeffrey Archer or Dan Brown must have been improved, as it would be impossible for them to get any worse.

Michael Burgess, Boxford, Suffolk

Are you kidding? I couldn't understand a word of The Iliad until I read it in English.

Jeff Williams, Stockton-on-Tees

What would be the ideal occupation for a "Jack of all trades, master of none"?

Before it was dumbed down, around 20-25 years ago, marketing was what the Americans used to call the "generalism". It used to be the function that determined goals and steered the specialist departments of a business towards collective achievement of them. The marketeer briefed technical people, sales people, production people, lawyers, accountants, advertising agencies and the rest; and had to be able, in return, to understand these and many other specialists; and to co-ordinate them all. As a young marketing man in the 1960s and 70s, I exercised that sort of strategic overview without any compartmentalised, specialist background: truly "Jack of all trades and master of none".

David Barlow, Worcester

Does anyone still believe in water divining, or has it gone the way of spoon bending?

Yes, although it's not really a case of "belief" as the results are clearly visible to anyone who tries. My partner and I have taught more than 100 people, using cut-up wire coat-hangers (you can use any metal rods or, the traditional hazel twigs, although they give a weaker response). Bend the rods into an L-shape, hold the short end loosely in your hand with the long ends straight out in front of you, parallel to the ground. Move forward slowly and the rods will cross when you walk over water – usually a water pipe.

I don't claim to know how it works, and don't claim that it is any kind of "mystical power" – it's simply a type of energy we don't understand yet. But in time, no doubt, we will. Alison Mouser, Godalming, Surrey

Any answers?

Why does the Panama Canal have locks? What would happen if they were taken away and the Atlantic and Pacific oceans flowed into each other?

Jacob Harger, Bournemouth

Where did the chicken go after it crossed the road?

Mary Gowrie, Renfrew, Paisley


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