[Sca-cooks] Trying again: introduction and questions

[Richenda du Jardin]

Translations are intended to convey meaning as well as cultural context in
these situations. When you change the tense of the verbs or take other
liberties you change meaning and context in a way that damages the fabric
of the text.

I work with translators as part of my mundane profession. I do not want
(and will fire) a translator that takes such liberties with the text I have
given them. There is a difference in meaning between “You should do...”,
“You could do...”, “You must do...”, and “Do...”. As a translator, your job
is to translate what the author wrote, not what you think he should have
said or what would be easier to understand.

Richenda

On Fri, Feb 16, 2018 at 7:03 PM Barbara Nostrand <nostrand at gakumon.com>
wrote:

> Sorry Richenda, but I can not agree with you on this one. Cookbooks are
> not literary nonfiction. Commonplace features of particular languages and
> cultures should not be slavishly carried across from one language to
> another. The problem with doing so is that it can easily misrepresent what
> is going on to non-specialists.
>
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Feb 16, 2018, at 5:16 PM, Richenda du Jardin <
> richenda.du.jardin at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I disagree. That is a modern aesthetic to cooking - but not necessarily a
> period one. If you are trying to translate a period cookbook - then keep to
> the period aesthetic.
>
> Yes, it is a little harder to understand, but that is part and parcel of
> what we do. We try to understand how a recipe to roast butter on a spit
> would work. We try to sort out what faire water and wastel bread are. That
> is part of our jobs as food scholars.
>
> Richenda
>
> On Thu, Feb 15, 2018 at 2:20 PM Sǫlveig Þrándardóttir <nostrand at acm.org>
> wrote:
>
>>
>> Why not be more direct and sound more like cooking instructions.  For
>> example, start out with “Roast the peacock. For the sauce, mix together
>> mashed currants and almonds and add wine, cinnamon, ...”. Yes, it looses
>> the suggestive nature of the original, but almost nobody cares about that.
>>
>> Include the original Hungarian to make those who like to look at the
>> original version happy. I suggesting making the English translation direct
>> and to the point without introducing a redaction. As always with English,
>> stick verbs as close to the beginning of each sentence as you can get away
>> with.
>>
>> Your Humble Servant
>> Sǫlveig Þrándardóttir
>> Amateur Scholar
>>
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>>
>