My kingdoms for a copy editor.

[mrissa]

Mostly I do not name the books I quit reading, but I am halfway through this copy of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Volume I, and I can't bear it any more. It's not the book, it's the production of it. It's the Tuttle Classics edition, translated by C. H. Brewitt-Taylor, and I don't know whether they got an incompetent copy editor or whether the author overused the stet stamp to the copy editor's chagrin, but there are so many bits that are wrong and so many more that aren't even wrong. Misplaced commas. Completely misspelled English words. Entendres that leave "you are hot, my prince" in the dust.

And this is important to me because I do not know the characters in Romance of the Three Kingdoms very well--I didn't grow up hearing these stories the way some of you did--so if I run into a place where it says Cho where it should say Ch'u, I will not be able to spot it. Hard enough to keep track of characters in an unfamiliar epic with real names used. (With fictional names, the editor can say, "You know, Cho and Ch'u are awfully close, especially since you have Ch'ieh and Chang as well. Maybe one of them could be named Frank or something?") Still harder when you don't have faith that the text has been edited properly. So I'm done with this version, and I'm recommending that any of you interested in this material should read a different translation. Uff da.

(I already got to the bit with the eyeball and the bit with the...er...wife and dinner, let's say. Oh, alecaustin, you look all sweetness and light now.)

Comments

[themagdalen.livejournal.com]

:) See my latest post

[marydell.livejournal.com]

I have the Moss Roberts translation from Foreign Languages Press--I haven't read it yet, but I've read other translated Chinese stories by him and he's awesome. It's also an attractive edition with character illos in the intro. If you'd like me to transcribe a particular passage so you can compare, I'd be happy to.

Anyway I got this version at Amazon. I'll have to start reading it now because I'm curious about the eyeball/wife/dinner stuff.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Moss Roberts translation. This is useful, thank you.

[marydell.livejournal.com]

There's a short discussion of the different translations here: http://www.threekingdoms.com/book.aspx

Quick comparison:

Opening of the B-T version:

The world under heaven, after a long period of division, tends to unite; after a long period of union, tends to divide. This has been so since antiquity. When the rule of the Zhou Dynasty weakened, seven contending kingdoms sprang up, warring one with another until the kingdom of Qin prevailed and possessed the empire. But when Qin's destiny had been fulfilled, arose two opposing kingdoms, Chu and Han, to fight for the mastery. And Han was the victor.

Opening of the Roberts version:

Here begins our tale. The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide. Thus it has ever been. In the closing years of the Zhou dynasty, seven kingdoms warred among themselves until the kingdom of Qin prevailed and absorbed the other six. But Qin soon fell, and on its ruins two opposing kingdoms, Chu and Han, fought for mastery until the kingdom of Han prevailed and absorbed its rival, as Qin had done before.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I think I could live with that! Especially with the commas where they ought to go.

(Not that you have misplaced commas. That the B-T version does.)

(British Telecom?)

[alecaustin.livejournal.com]

Ugh. That translation sounds miserable.

As for the ick, well - mythic/ancient China. Not a particularly nice place. (Though I obviously thought the bit with the eye was cool, for certain values of cool.)