h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A while ago, after putting on my ereader a copy taken from the internet, I´ve felt curiosity about the translator.
As a kind of apperitive before starting the novel Ive thought to have a look about who is Nathan H. Dole.

There are not many positive comments on his traslation.

Should I look for another translation? If so, which one?

gracias.

Was it translated into English or Spanish?

Hathan H. Dole´s translation was the first one made from Russian to English.

The Pevear and Valinskn...(forgot the name) seems to be very praised, but I can´t get it by free. I´ve just found one of Constance Garnett. I´ve read some critics. Hemingway liked her translations, and since I like Hemingway... I´ll try that one.

Constance garnett has a good reputation generally. I'd trust her on this one.

I'd find it difficult to comment on a translation. I could say it was bad English, say, but I couldn't comment on whether it accurately represented the original, not without speaking Russian, etc, in which case I wouldn't need it.

I think that if you start wondering about the translation whilst you are reading, this is a sign that he/she hasn't done a good job.

I agree with TC. It's not really about accuracy at least for novels. You want it to be well written. I have read a well written translation of War and Peace and a badly written translation of Anna Karenina, and it's a good thing I read them in that order or I'd have probably thought Tolstoy was a terrible writer - I don't know why but I am not sure I would have realised it was the translation otherwise.

Mind you, some writers are hard to translate and still get any idea of the original. There's a Russian short story writer who did something clever with slang - think, probably, the same sort of voice as Wodehouse and Bertie Wooster, except different context, class, etc etc, and some poor academic spent ten years trying to figure out how to get it into English, but what it comes across as is terribly stilted and old fashioned, which I am pretty sure is not what it sounds like in Russian. It's like someone 'translating', I dunno, Trainsportting into Wodehousian English.

Wodehousian English sounds delightful if it's genuine Wodehouse.