[Vwoolf] Wikipedia v. other sources

[Jeremy Hawthorn]

Stuart -

Yes, I have pointed this error out previously. The translator in 
question, Kari Risvik, often translates with her husband, Kjell. 
Wikipedia (which is where we came in!) reports that between the two of 
them, they translate into Norwegian from Spanish, Portuguese, 
Catalanian, Italian, French, German, English, Hebrew and six other 
languages. They are a very well-established pair of translators who have 
won awards, but have had their critics, and their translation of Zadie 
Smith’s novel NW was withdrawn by the publisher because it contained so 
many mistakes. For example, in a section of this novel discussing the 
music of the British group The Kinks, the sentence "All Kinks all day" 
was rendered as "Bare krøll dagen lang" = "just curls all day". It may 
be noted that here, as with the “Mrs Dalloway” example, the failure to 
note the importance of a capital letter is crucial.

Mistakes in books that reprint frequently (novels, textbooks) can and 
should be corrected. Like Stuart, I have been guilty of more than I 
would like. Mistakes in academic monographs, which often never reprint 
(or, indeed, sell!) frequently remain uncorrected into eternity.

Jeremy


On 10.01.2018 11.45, Stuart N. Clarke wrote:
>
> You may have mentioned this before - unless, of course, I spotted it 
> myself! "Ville man vite noe em paven, for eksampel, eller Addison, 
> eller bare prate om løst og fast ..."
> WOOLF, Virginia (transl. Risvik, Kari; afterword by Anka Ryall), "Mrs 
> Dalloway", Oslo, Gyldendal, Klassikerserien, 2003 reprint (1980), p.140
>
> Many years ago, I wrote to Penguin to point out errors in their "A 
> Room of One's
> Own": they continued to reprint without correcting the errors, until they
> produced a new scholarly edition.  I did, however, get warm and 
> appreciative
> letters in acknowledgement from someone named Pippa or Penny or 
> Frances, or some such.
>
> I've just found my correspondence from 1977: it was with Jenny ("[we] 
> will indeed correct a further impression of this title"). Also, I 
> informed the list about this on 15/1/11!
>
> Stuart
>
> -----Original Message----- From: Jeremy Hawthorn
> Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2018 10:11 AM
> To: vwoolf at lists.osu.edu
> Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] Wikipedia v. other sources
>
> Most annoying are errors that are pointed out but remain uncorrected (at
> least Wikipedia allows correction, even if the process is flawed).
>
> Early on in my time in Norway - about 1985 - I noticed that in the
> Norwegian translation of "Mrs Dalloway" Clarissa's admission that if you
> wanted to learn about Pope or Addison, Peter Walsh was the person to ask
> (I'm on holiday so don't have the actual text) "Pope" is taken to mean
> "the Pope" and translated accordingly. I wrote to the publisher, but the
> last time I checked the error remained uncorrected.
>
> Jeremy H
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-- 
Jeremy Hawthorn
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Norway

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My recent books:
https://ohiostatepress.org/Books/Book%20Pages/Hawthorn%20Reader.html
http://www.brill.com/products/book/narrative-ethics
http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/studying-the-novel-9781472575111/