DCML Digest, Vol 52, Issue 8 (Scrooge's Quest)

[Francesco Spreafico]

Travis Seitler wrote:

> To which I would reply, "it depends." Specifically, it depends on
> whether the publisher's intent is to republish an old story _as an old
> story_, or rather to reinterpret an old story in a new light so that
> new audiences will find it as engaging as the original was to its
> intended audience.

Ok, but we're not talking about the Bible or Dante here, we're talking 
about a story that's just as modern today (in language too) as it was in 
1957. I'm a translator myself, I deal with these problems every day... I 
translate Caniff and Herriman, and their works are generally a lot older 
than Scarpa's! Notice anyway that I'm not dissing the translation at 
all. In certain points it is *very* good. And not only when it's 
literal, as you say you can't be always literal. For example... here 
they talk about "Manhattan" a couple of times more than they actually do 
in the original. But that's okay, because they're *really going* to 
Manhattan, it's not added "for fun". Nor I see problems with "Killa 
Goriller", to make another example! I know how "English" names made up 
in Italy sometimes look weird there, and have to be changed.

But why, for example, talk about the Phantom Blot's traps? There is no 
reference to the Blot in the real text, and adding it does not add 
anything to the story, since the creator didn't mean it to be there. 
We're all midgets standing giants shoulders here, we should not think we 
know better than them, because we don't. None of us does.

This is not a new problem anyway! I remember some awkward references to 
Barks's stories added in the old Gladstone's Colossus of the Nile...

> So to bring it back to the topic being discussed here: if we had
> printed "The Great Gawrsh-Durn Champion" in a collected archive of
> Scarpa material (a la the CBL) then I would agree with you--a direct
> translation would be preferred. On the other hand, since we published
> the story in a monthly pamphlet (a pamphlet which, whether anyone here
> likes it or not, is seen as "kiddie comics" in this country) it makes
> more sense to update the dialog and thematic elements where it's
> feasible, creating more of a "dynamic equivalent" of Scarpa's tale.

But these ARE kiddie comics, I agree! (meaning that it's imperative that 
kids can read them.) And there is no problem with creating the 
equivalent... of course you are, you're translating it! 8-)

--
Francesco
http://www.dimensionedelta.net/scarpa/