Out
of all the books we have read so far, The
Stranger has been my favorite by far. I have been absolutely astounded by
the fact that even though Meursault is such a seemingly emotionless, robotic,
and even animalistic protagonist, he has managed to evoke some of the strongest
reactions and most intense debates that we’ve had all semester. How did Camus
pull this off? The key, in my opinion, was his language. Every word has a
deeper meaning, and every sentence offers not only a clinically precise description
of events, but also a subtle glimpse into Meursault’s true character. It is
easy to imagine a romanticized version of Camus, working far into the night by candlelight,
slaving over each word to make sure it fits absolutely perfectly in his
portrayal of Meursault. And yet, how disappointed he would have been to realize
that all his work had gone to waste – it had all been lost in translation.
Translating
a masterpiece, like The Stranger, is
always a daunting task, but it is compounded by the fact that English is a relatively
simple language. It just doesn’t have the tools to express many aspects of
French, and as a result, in almost all translations, including the one by Matthew
Ward that we have been reading, a lot of Camus’s implied meaning has been lost.
Recently, however, a new
version has come out by the American translator Sandra Smith, which is targeted
specifically at dealing with some of the holes in earlier translations. Her translation
deviates from previous attempts from the very first word. Camus’s original title
for the book was L’Étranger, which had
always been translated as “the stranger.” In French, however, it means more
than just that; it describes someone who is foreign, someone who doesn’t fit
within the community. Therefore, Smith’s version of L’Étranger is actually titled The
Outsider, a title which I feel much better describes Meursault’s personality,
as well as others’ inability to understand his mentality. A second important
change she made is how she dealt with the distinction between tu (the informal version of “you,” which
you would only say to an adult if you had an extremely close relationship with
them) and vous (the formal “you”).
This difference is especially important to this book in particular, as it
allows us to better understand the depth of Meursault’s personal relationships.
One example of this occurs in the scene where Meursault becomes Raymond Sìntes’s
“pal.” In the original French, Camus writes: “Je ne me suis pas aperçu d’abord qu’il me tutoyait,” which Ward
translates as “I didn’t notice at first, but he had stopped calling me ‘monsieur’”
(33). Smith, on the other hand, translates it as “At first I didn’t realize
he’d started addressing me in a very personal way,” which portrays the depth of
the implication of the statement a bit better. While not being called “mister” is
quite common (most adults I know introduce themselves to other adults by their
first name), being addressed extremely personally seems to be more of the
intrusion and violation of one’s dignity that is implied by being called “tu” in French.
While no translation is
perfect, The Outsider definitely
serves to resolve these and many more of the issues with previous versions. I
would be very interested to see if our class discussions would have gone along
a different path if we had read this or another translation of the book.
I had a different translation of the book than everyone else in the class. As Mr. Mitchell had mentioned, there are two common translations, one with more formal prose, and one with more casual American style. I had the more formal book, and reading it definitely heightened Meursault's cold personality, as opposed to if I had used the other translation, which was often quoted in class. There was something about the way that Camus was narrating such terrible things in such beautiful language that made everything seem stranger and more cut off. So while the basics of the book were the same, you make a valid point suggesting that much of Camus's original intentions are lost in translation. I certainly experienced this with my book compared to my classmate's.
ReplyDeleteThe title of The Outsider is super fascinating; I absolutely agree that it adds depth to the meaning of the book like you said. It appears to be a common qualm for the translated books we have read, thinking that we might not be getting everything the author intends. However, with Kafka his style seems to be far more direct than Camus', so your observations are especially poignant. Thankfully, Camus is a great enough author that the story alone can carry tremendous meaning and thoughtfulness as we have discussed in class.
ReplyDeleteI find the topic of translation a fascinating one, and it's great to hear these details about other versions to get a better picture of the original. Every word in this novel is analyzed in an attempt to understand Meursault, and collecting different translations to recreate the implications of the French is thus of the utmost importance for interpreting the book correctly. Would we say Meursault had no soul if he called his mother 'Mother' instead of 'Maman'? These pivotal words are vital to the novel, and I'm glad that another person has attempted to convey them properly.
ReplyDeleteThere is another section in the book, when he is with the magistrate, when this happens. It is a very difficult thing to translate, because we have nothing like it in English. While Smith's version does seem to keep the implication, it loses the brevity and terseness.
ReplyDeleteI think you mention a very important idea here. Translation is something that I often find myself dumbfounded by. I have a hard time grasping this idea that there are some things I just won't understand completely. But I often wonder if this idea of misunderstanding between Camus and the reader is part of his strategy. Because a lot of The Stranger had some parts seemed to be confusing, and often ungraspable. But as a reader I wonder if some of that was Camus' way of creating a character/story that can only be understood by Meursault (and Camus) himself.
ReplyDeleteTranslation is a very complex factor here, and an interesting one. The question of how to represent the original words of an author, which were without a doubt chosen with deliberation, seems pivotal for Camus' novel. It would be interesting to read multiple translations of The Stranger, just to see if our sense of Meursaukt changes based on changing a few words, here and there.
ReplyDeleteTranslation is very interesting topic that can completely change how you understand the novel. The same thing happened when we were reading the metamorphosis, in which everyone else copy of the book implied that Gregor died on his own accord, however my copy of the book said that he died without willing too. You bring up an interesting point about how mistranslated things can change our perception of the books we read.
ReplyDelete