Translation into Spanish
My house is full of good literature, novels and biography mainly; I am a compulsive reader. I usually reject bestsellers, so I don’t remember how I got hold of Larsson’s first book, but once I read it I could not let go. I was so desperate to continue reading that I promised not to read the other two (I have a life, you know!) On the other hand, I read it in Spanish and the translation couldn’t be worse. I was living with my decision when I read an article on the Millennium Trilogy by Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa on Spanish newspaper El País, which forced me to revert my decision. (I have to say I disagree with Vargas Llosa and blame the quality to translation and not to the original writing, too bad I don’t know Swedish!) I just finished the second one some minutes ago and already bought the third one that just arrived to my country (Ecuador). The story is such “a drug” (as “Le Nouvel Observateur” says), that the terrible translation did not deter me from continuing. Never had such experience!!!!
Posted by Maricruz in Quito , 20 September 2009
9 comments on “Translation into Spanish”
It’s always great to find good literature. But what about reading them in English? I don’t know if the translation is better but it’s worth a try.
The translaation into Spanish is not bad at all!!Come on how can you say that when you don’t have even read the original in Swedish!!! I’m reading in parallel the both translations (Swedish and Spanish- of the 2nd book of the trilogy)abd I can say that the translation is pretty god. I even know the swedish translater (there task was performanced by 2, the other one is spanish) and I he is a great professional with some books about gramatics in the market
Posted by solveig in Madrid ,
hi. i can’t say whether or not the spanish translation is good or bad. i’m finding it just fine, but i am VERY curious as to why certain words are in English?? things like “off the record” or “occasional lover”. Are English words widely used in Sweden? Is it similar to the use of English words like “lifting” and “mail” in Spanish?
Posted by -f. in Pontevedra, Spain ,
Hi..yes i wondered this too.. I would imagine that the original Swedish version must have had these English words and so it was natural to include them in the Spanish translation. Obviously the English translation would not have picked them up. I can’t say I found the Spanish translation at all bad. What are the objections of thoise who say it is?
Posted by R in christchurch New Zealand ,
The Spanish translatios is terrible if you live in Latinamerica. I am originally from Mexico, living in the US. I chose to read the three books in Spanish as I thought the titles of the book in Spanish reflected much better the Swedish original ones. As a coincidence, my sister has lived in Spain for 12 years and I have been exposed to the local slang. However, I definitely think the Spanish translation is not adequate for this part of the world, at all. I am glad the books were amazing, otherwise the frustration would have made me stop reading them.
Posted by Monica Graham in Weston, FL ,
The answer is simple and Monica is right on the money. I don’t know who transalted the books to SPN,and did not read them is Spanish, but if standard Spanish is not utulized, and regional lingo & expressions of a particular country are used it will not transfer to other Spn. speaking parts of the world. A person would have to be well read and familiar with that particular region to grasp the essenceof the translation. Regardless, now I’m curious and will look for a Spanish version to check it out.
Posted by Sofia in San Antonio ,
THe translation in spanish is very bad. I do translations for German, Swedish Danish etc to Spanish. IN this case it was a very mediocre job.
Plus the titles were amazingly ridiculous. I agree with the previous comment there were people saying why would you read a book with such a title. I loved the books. They still ahve time to do a better job.
Posted by C Ramirez in Barcelona ,
I agree with Monica. Translation to spanish sucks if you´re not spanish. I’ve read the 3 books and quite often I was forced to google the meaning of words and expressions that we definitely didn’t even know they’re exist. If this wasn’t such an appealing story I’d thrown the books apart!
Posted by Lina in Mexico City ,
I’ve read both the English and Spanish versions (Book 1) and I don’t see much difference. the book is mostly backstory and exposition. That’s not the translation, it’s the original writing.
Posted by Marta in London ,