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Poll: How many famous or well known translators/linguists can you name?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
Hege Jakobsen Lepri
Hege Jakobsen Lepri  Identity Verified
Norway
Local time: 17:37
Member (2002)
English to Norwegian
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Lydia Davis, Samuel Beckett, Vladimir Nabokoff, Robert Bly... Jun 18, 2014

...are the most famous I can recall, though probably not as famous for their translation as for their writing.
In addition I do know about half a dozen well-known translators into Scandinavian languages, though most of them probably wouldn't make into the category "world famous"
 
Hege Jakobsen Lepri
Hege Jakobsen Lepri  Identity Verified
Norway
Local time: 17:37
Member (2002)
English to Norwegian
+ ...
linguistics... Jun 18, 2014

Alberto Montpellier wrote:

Jeff Whittaker wrote:

The LinguistList maintains a page with short biographies from linguists about how they became linguists (real linguists, not translators):
http://linguistlist.org/studentportal/linguists/index.cfm


I take it translators are no real linguists, then... Hmmm... interesting. :|

Actually, I agree they/we aren't.
Linguists in the academic sense, are people who study the rules and principles governing language, describing patterns.
Translators don't generally do that.
It's sort of like putting those who study the principles behind the car, and those who drive it professionally, in the same category.

[Edited at 2014-06-18 19:27 GMT]

[Edited at 2014-06-18 19:30 GMT]
 
Marcus Malabad
Marcus Malabad  Identity Verified
Canada
German to English
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Famous Jun 19, 2014

I'm with Steven above, the names of Gregory Rabassa and Constance Garnett come to mind immediately. I remember reading their translations of Sp/Ru lit when I was in college before I could read Ru/Es myself. Although now that I know Russian, Constance Garnett's translations seem old-fashioned and stilted. Nabokov was a fantastic translator of Pushkin (among others). His polemics with critics are legendary. I read Rom/Anc Gr lit only in translation and you couldn't go wrong with Robert Fagles. I r... See more
I'm with Steven above, the names of Gregory Rabassa and Constance Garnett come to mind immediately. I remember reading their translations of Sp/Ru lit when I was in college before I could read Ru/Es myself. Although now that I know Russian, Constance Garnett's translations seem old-fashioned and stilted. Nabokov was a fantastic translator of Pushkin (among others). His polemics with critics are legendary. I read Rom/Anc Gr lit only in translation and you couldn't go wrong with Robert Fagles. I remember reading a Time article in the 80s on his modern translation of The Iliad/Odyssey.

Almost all the great Russian writers of the 19th/20th c translated Western European writers into Russian. Russians know Shakespeare, for example, mostly through Pasternak.

I'm reading Orhan Pamuk and Haruki Murakami now. Translators: Erdağ Göknar and Jay Rubin. Their translations of My Name is Red and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle are outstanding.

It seems that to become famous as a translator, you need to be a college professor or something, translating a preeminent author's fictional works. So I guess translating engineering manuals won't get me anywhere near the halls of fame. ▲ Collapse
 
Steven Capsuto
Steven Capsuto  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 11:37
Member (2004)
Spanish to English
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Linguist Jun 19, 2014

Let's not get all snobby about this word. It means different things in different contexts.
 
Muriel Vasconcellos
Muriel Vasconcellos  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 08:37
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
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I wrote a blog post about this Jun 21, 2014

This discussion got me thinking and I have written a profound/funny blog post on the subject. See: http://www.findingmyinvinciblesummer.info/2014/06/20/musings-on-translation-bambi-and-whittaker-chambers/
 
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Poll: How many famous or well known translators/linguists can you name?






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