I used to think I had read Doctor Faustus....

....turns out I didn't really....(in my opinion) :P

Translation.

So you think you've read War and Peace huh? Well unless you read Russian I contend that you haven't. Sure you might know the story, know what the characters did and/or said (sort of), but you didn't read the words of Tolstoy.

The German poet, critic and scholar, Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel wrote a poem that the great composer Robert Schumann quoted in part at the beginning of his Fantasie Op.17:


Durch alle tone Tonet
Im bunten Erdentraum
Ein leiser Ton gezogen
Fur den, der heimlich lauschet


If you ran out today and bought a CD of some pianist playing the Fantasie, it is a virtual certainty that the liner notes would mention the quote that appears on the score, and include an English translation for you.

I just grabbed six CD versions off my shelves; here are their offered translations:


1. Through all the varied sounds which fill the world's many colored dreams, one whispered tone may be barely heard for those who listen in secret.

2. Through all the sounds sounding in the colorful earth-dream, a quiet sound comes forth for him who eavesdrops.

3. Through all the tones that vibrate about earth's mingled dream, one whispered tone is sounding for ears attent to hear.

4. Amid all the tones in the motley terrestrial dream, a soft drawn-out sound intones for the one who secretly listens.

5. Amid all the varied sounds which fill the world's mingled dream, one whispered tone comes forth for ears attent to hear.

6. Through all the sounds in the earth's varied dream, one soft note can be heard by him who listens carefully.

7. In all the myriad sounds of earth's many-colored dream there runs a secret tone for the one who knows how to listen.


"But wait Lex. You said you grabbed six CD's, there are 7 translations there...?"

Yes, that is true. Because I just made up one of them.
And no. I don't speak German.
Can it be said that I am translating the words of Schlegel? I hope not. But where is the difference?

One might read all seven of those "translations" and think that one or two of them are beautiful poetry, but not like one or two of the others at all.....

Poetry is, in great part, defined by diction, (word choice).

They all present the same idea that Schlegel is conveying, but none of them can possibly present his poetry. The same can be said for prose that has been translated.

So I just looked up War and Peace on Amazon and the first link was to a version translated by a woman named Rosemary Edmonds. Now I am sure she is a brilliant, competent, woman, but is she Tolstoy?

If you read her version of War and Peace and someone asked you "have you read Tolstoy?" You would probably say "yes; I read War and Peace."

....what does all this mean...? I guess the final point here is that literary translation (interpretation!) is a re-creative art.
The spirit can be captured, (but is by no means guaranteed).
The story can be learned, (shared).
But the prose.
The poetry.
Is beyond translation.


Incidentally; I am happy to entertain guesses as to which one of the "translations" I created. ;)