Synthesized answer
According to the passages, dialect cannot be truly translated; it "can only be got round by a sort of trickery which is usually unconvincing" [1]. This is because translation deals with words, and dialect lacks an "exact and international language" like music, making its emotional and cultural specificity impossible to replicate directly in another language [1].
Archaic linguistic registers, such as Luther's German, pose a different but equally profound difficulty. The English-speaking world "boasts no Luther in the history of its language," so the vocabulary of early English translators like Wycliffe or Tyndale "can scarcely evoke for us the emotions of the literate German" that Luther's original words summon [1]. The archaic style is used deliberately to create a specific "religious atmosphere" due to its "historical affinity with the religious" [2]. A translator cannot reproduce this historical and emotional resonance because the target language lacks a comparable linguistic figure and tradition that would carry the same weight for its readers [1]. The passages do not offer a solution to this problem, only an explanation of its intractability.
Synthesized from the book passages below. Chat with the book on Feynman for follow-up.
From the book
Grievous difficulties do indeed confront anyone essaying the role of copyist to this vast canvas, this cathedral of a book, this woven tapestry of symbolism. Translations deal with words; and in two fields at least the situation is unsatisfactory (I do not include in 'the list the extended musical discussion and critique, since music, and talk about it, uses an exact and international language). But dialect cannot be translated, it can only be got round by a sort of trickery which is usually unconvincing. Again, there are chap- ters resorting to an archaic style and spelling. The…
Very remarkable to me, even on the second reading, was the fact that the style, the travesty or personal adaptation of Kumpf’s old-German, prevailed only until the adventure was recounted and then was dropped regardless, so that the closing pages are entirely uncoloured by it and show a perfectly modern style. Is it not as though the archaizing tone had served its purpose as soon as the tale of the false guide is on paper? As though it is given up afterwards, not so much because it is unsuitable for the final ob- servations put in to divert the attention, as because from the date…
say that a poem must not be too good to furnish a good lied. Mu- sic is at home in the task of gilding the mediocre. Just as real virtuosity in an actor shows up more brilliantly in a poor piece. But Adrian’s relation to art was too proud and critical for him to wish to let his light shine in darkness. He had to look very high, intellectually, where he was to feel himself called as musician, and so the German poem to which he gave himself productively is also of the highest rank if without the intellectual distinction of the Keats lyrics. In place of literary exquisiteness we have…
What I at once tried my best to dissuade him from was his strange and utterly impractical idea of composing the comedy in English, because he found that the only right, dignified, authentic thing; also because it seemed indicated, on account of thi^lays on words and the old English verse with doggerel rhyme. The very important objection, that a text in a foreign language would de- stroy every prospect of its appearance on a German stage, he did not consider, because he altogether declined to imagine a con- temporary public for his exclusive, eccentric, fantastic dreams. It was a…
colouration that comes from quite other strata of tradition, altogether foreign to the blitheness of classical culture. I began this record by expressing doubt whether I was the right man for the task. The arguments I had to adduce against such doubts I will not repeat. It must suffice that, supported on them, strengthened by them, I propose to remain true to my under- taking.
More questions about this book
- The translator introduces the analogy "Les traductions sont comme les femmes: lorsqu’elles sont belles, elles ne sont pas fideles, et lorsqu’elles sont fideles, dies ne sont pas belles." How does this famous metaphor illuminate the fundamental, often irreconcilable, tension between literal meaning and aesthetic impact that a translator must navigate?
- Thomas Mann, through his narrator, expresses fear that the book's "all too radically German parts" might be impossible to translate into English. What specific cultural or linguistic elements might make parts of a novel uniquely "German" and resistant to direct translation, and what does this imply about the relationship between language and national identity?
- If *Doctor Faustus* is described as a "cathedral of a book" and a "woven tapestry of symbolism," what ethical and artistic responsibilities does a translator shoulder, and what compromises might they inevitably make when attempting to re-create such a complex, culturally embedded work for a different audience?
- Dante's epigraph calls upon Muses and intellect to aid in a difficult journey of telling. How does this invocation resonate with the translator's own "grievous difficulties" and fears of producing a version that is "ni belle ni fidde," suggesting a shared struggle inherent in both original creation and profound interpretation?