Alexander Fraser Tytler

Essay on the principles on Translation

Chapter 11
THE TRANSLATION OF IDIOMATIC PHRASES.

The most difficult problem for a translator will be found in the translation of idioms, or those turns of
expression which do not belong to the whole grammar, but of which every language has its own, that are
exclusively proper to it.
There are many aspects of this problem, for instance a construction which regulate the whole
language, and which may not be common to it with other languages.
As, for example, the placing the adjective always before the substantive in English, which in French
and in Latin is most commonly placed after it.

The translation is perfect, when the translator finds in his own language an idiomatic phrase
corresponding to that of the original.

If a translator is bound, in general, to adhere with fidelity to the manners of the age and country to which
his original belongs, there are some instances in which he will find it necessary to make a slight sacrifice
to the manners of his modern readers.

The translator will often meet with idiomatic phrases in the original author, to which no corresponding
idiom can be found in the language of the translation. As a literal translation of such phrases cannot be
tolerated, the only resource is, to express the sense in TL(target language).
But this resource, of translating the idiomatic phrase into easy language(звичайна мова), must fail,
where the merit of the passage to be translated actually lies in that expression which is idiomatical. This
will often occur in epigrams(дотепний вираз), many of which are therefore incapable of translation

Chapter 12
DIFFICULTY OF TRANSLATING DON QUIXOTE, FROM ITS IDIOMATIC PHRASEOLOGY. THE
COMPARISON OF THE TRANSLATION OF THAT ROMANCE.

There is perhaps no book to which it is more difficult to do perfect translation than the Don Quixote of
Cervantes. This difficulty arises from the extreme frequency of its idiomatic phrases. As the Spanish
language is in itself highly idiomatical, even the narrative part of the book is difficult to understand how
to translate proper.
The two best translation are the translation of Motteux and Smollet, both of them writers eminently well
qualified for the task they undertook.

Smollet inherited from nature a strong sense of ridicule, a great fund of original humor. As he possessed
talents equal to the composition of original works of the same species with the romance of Cervantes ; so
it is not perhaps possible to conceive a writer more completely qualified to give a perfect translation of
that romance.

Motteux, with no great abilities as an original writer. He seems likewise to have had a great command of
the various styles which are accommodated to the expression of low humor. Inferior to Smollett in
inventive genius, he seems to have equaled him in every quality which was essentially requisite to a
translator of Don Quixote.

In the translation of Motteux there is perhaps too much gravity ; but Smollet has rendered the
composition altogether burlesque(parody).

It was remarked, that Motteux surpass(перевершувати) his rival chiefly in the translation of those
poems that are of a graver cast. But perhaps he is censurable for hiving thrown too much gravity into the
poems that are interspersed in this work, as Smollet is blamable on the opposite account, of having given
them too much the air of burlesque(parody).

Examples:

Many chapters about treats of the puppet-show, are well translated both by Motteux and Smollet.
But the discourse of the boy who explains the story of the piece, in Motteux's translation, appears
somewhat more consonant to the phraseology commonly used on such occasions

Motteux had given the best possible translation, and that he had supplanted him in the choice of
corresponding idioms, seems to have piqued himself on a rigid adherence to the very letter of his original.

Conclusion:

So we can say that, the translation of Motteux has more passion in some moments, but the translation
by Smollet is, perhaps, more valuable on the whole, because more complete. But they are the best
variants from the other translation.

Chapter 13
OTHER CHARACTERISTICS OF COMPOSITION, WHICH RENDER TRANSLATION DIFFICULT.