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Wow. It's been years since I've written anything on this mailing list,
but I want to say that I agree completely with what Don Markstein just
posted regarding re-writes of translations. First of all, sometimes
jokes just don't translate. So you have to add something. You have to
make changes. I've never re-written any European Disney scripts, but I
did do a re-write for a five-book Viz series, Ultra Maniac. In that
case, I think one of the reasons I was hired was that the editor knew I
could write new gags.<br>
<br>
I also agree with Don about my own Disney/Egmont scripts. I want the
people who translate and re-script my stories to make me look good. Of
course, I want them to remain true to the spirit of my story. But
there's no way they can do that if they try to go with a literal
translation and don't add references and terms that make sense in that
language.<br>
<br>
John Lustig<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.lastkisscomics.com">www.lastkisscomics.com</a><br>
<blockquote cite="midmailman.0.1182075182.3330.dcml@nafsk.se"
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<div class="headerdisplayname" style="display: inline;">Subject:
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Translation and censorship</td>
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<div class="headerdisplayname" style="display: inline;">From: </div>
"Donald D. Markstein" <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:ddmarkstein@cox.net"><ddmarkstein@cox.net></a></td>
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<div class="headerdisplayname" style="display: inline;">Date: </div>
Sat, 16 Jun 2007 06:26:29 -0700</td>
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<div class="headerdisplayname" style="display: inline;">To: </div>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:dcml@nafsk.se">dcml@nafsk.se</a></td>
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<div class="headerdisplayname" style="display: inline;">To: </div>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:dcml@nafsk.se">dcml@nafsk.se</a></td>
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<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">I'm not sure I'd like it, though... just as I
did not like the Flintstone reference... this is 1957, the Flintstone
still had to air! But besides that... if there is no reference in the
original, then there must be no reference in the translation, no matter
what. Not even the Phantom Blot reference later on in the story, there
is no such thing in the original.
<br>
<br>
I'm also sorry to see that censorship in the first two pages (about
hunting). I know that many Italian reprints of this story were just as
censored (actually, even more), but that's not a good reason.
Censorship is always wrong, no matter what.
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
How ironic to read the second "no matter what" in the paragraph
immediately following the first! What is an absolute, unequivocal
statement of what MUST NOT be in something, if not an attempt at
censorship?
<br>
<br>
Being a typical monolingual American, I don't do translation work. But
I've written new dialog for both Gladstone and Gemstone when the
original writer has made a good story, but his non-native skill with
English has rendered the actual words on the page less than ideal.
It's a lot like translating from English to American. In the credits,
it's called "American script".
<br>
<br>
My sole mandate in this work is to make it entertaining. Usually,
that's done by remaining faithful to the story as a whole, but playing
fast and loose with details. If I think of a good gag that can be
slipped in without damage to the original, I have no qualms about doing
so. I've even inserted entire subplots that weren't there before, tho
the opportunity for anything as radical as that doesn't come up very
often.
<br>
<br>
If there's a reference in the original that may strike a modern reader
as dated, you can bet it'll be modernized in the American script. And
if I can insert a reference into the script, that modern American
readers will get, I'll do so in a heartbeat. In a Scarpa story
published by Gladstone during the '90s, I needed an anology to fit into
the reader's cultural context, so I made a passing reference to
President Clinton's cat. It was perfectly apolitical, so no problems
there -- just a thing everybody had heard of, which was therefore
available for use -- which, to an American audience, the European
equivalent was not, even if a "faithful" translation would have used
one.
<br>
<br>
I took some flak from this very list for something else in that same
story. "How would you like a translator to do that to one of your
Egmont stories?" I was asked, tho it came more in the form of a
challenge. I responded by asking the translators to make me look good
in their languages, whatever that took. We're all familiar with the
idea of things being "lost in translation". That's inevitable. But the
translator can also put something in to replace it. There's no reason a
translated version can't be as good as the original, provided the
translator, who presumably is as good a writer in his own language as
editors seem to think I am in mine, is given a free hand.
<br>
<br>
As for "censoring" things like references to hunting or (one of my
favorite things to drop) tobacco smoking, bear in mind that while these
stories, churned out like yard goods for the voracious appetite of a
weekly comic book, may indeed be deathless art -- that's not how
publishers see them. They're just trying to sell funnybooks. If a
racial stereotype, perhaps perfectly acceptable in some bygone era,
would cost him circulation by offending some modern readers -- he'd be
a darned fool not to soften or eliminate it. It's not a matter of right
and wrong. It's what the audience is likely to buy.
<br>
<br>
In an ideal world, there would be separate editions for quaint, musty
antiquarians who want it precisely as it was, and modern readers who
just want to be entertained -- the antiquarian edition, of course,
available only privately, so as to avoid unnecessary
circulation-damaging controversy -- but we don't happen to live in an
ideal world. In the here-and-now, only one edition of the average,
routine story is going to see print, and it's going to be the one with
mass audience appeal. End of story.
<br>
<br>
Quack, Don
<br>
<br>
P.S. Translating Herriman?!! Since much of his appeal lies in his
inventive use of the English language, that must be a daunting task!
Hats off to anyone who can evoke a similar response in another
language! But I'll bet a good job of it would be nothing like the
original.
<br>
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