Episode III : The Backstroke of the West

[Kylearan]

Hi,

No two languages can truly be translated one into another, for no two cultures think alike.[right][snapback]85466[/snapback][/right]

That's especially true for poetry, and yet people try just this again and again. My favorite example for such a failure is the following, unfortunately understandable only for those who can read German (I won't make the mistake of trying to translate this into English :P ): A famous poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Wanderers Nachtlied, was translated into Japanese in 1902, then translated from Japanese into French in 1911. Then, a German literature magazine, believing it to be a Japanese poem originally, translated it back into German. Here is Goethe's original poem:

Über allen Gipfeln
Ist Ruh',
In allen Wipfeln
Spürest du
Kaum einen Hauch;
Die Vögelein schweigen im Walde.
Warte nur, balde
Ruhest du auch.

This is the result of the Japanese-French-German translation, printed in the magazine under the title of Japanisches Nachtlied:

Stille ist im Pavillon aus Jade
Krähen fliegen stumm
Zu beschneiten Kirschbäumen im Mondlicht.
Ich sitze
und weine.

:blink: :P :lol:

(This was taken from the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, German translation)

-Kylearan