More cunning linguists, but this time Vietnamese ones

I was intrigued by a recent article posted at Vietnam Net Bridge (http://tinyurl.com/7lp68) entitled: «Vietnamese translators killing international authors». Being a Vietnamese and a translator, I was of course wary about potential competition (not to mention, I've always wanted to be a ninja assassin cum translator) so I checked them out.

«Many foreign books have been translated into Vietnamese in the past 15 years and many of them contained major errors in translation. Are translators assassinating foreign authors’ works?

Recently, the Culture and Information Publishing House released a very badly translated version of the American novel ‘The Da Vinci Code.’

Vietnamese translators have worked individually, relying on personal talent. Thus far, no one has been successful in regulating a standard level of translation. Many international poets and authors have their work severely changed when it’s translated into Vietnamese. In the other words, their works are killed by translators.

There is currently no agency overseeing the translation of books into Vietnamese. Many are worried that the current situation offers no transparency in the translation process and few opportunities for quality control.

Many young talented translators are not being given the opportunity to work with international literature of any consequence. They are ignored by publishers because they apparently lack the prestige and experience of their older counterparts. What they actually lack is simply the relationships to get their foot in the door. Consequently, there is a lack of realistic youthful voices in translated literature.

For many years, Russian poetry was considered the epitome of literature in Vietnam. Now, one must wonder if the translations were good in the first place. According to many experts, Vietnamese translators have been assassinating Russian poets for quite some time.

Of course any translator faces a colossal task when attempting to translate a work of literature between two languages. All we can ask is that they do their best. However, it is important that the safeguards are in place so the public knows that the version they are reading is as close to the intentions of the author as possible.»

Phew! No competition there. My job is safe. On the other hand, I have read many English translations of Vietnamese novels and poems that are full of mistakes. The latest example is «Spring Essence: The Poetry of Ho Xuan Huong» (http://tinyurl.com/a3u6z), a compilation of poems by one of Vietnam most famous poetesses translated by poet and translator Balaban. Despite his valiant efforts, Balaban could not reproduce Ho Xuan Huong's playful wit or her mischievious sexual double entendres and even introduced some blatant mistranslations.