Value of Literature in Translation

Many of the top novels written can be translated to nearly any, commonly used language. This means that as a result of Translation of literature we are able to experience the viewpoints and expression of ideas of any author. However a very significant problem that comes along with the translation of literature is the very clear language barrier that may be faced in the process. Although single words and phrases can be translated and understood most of the time very easily, metaphors and other literary techniques may be unique to the language it is written in and therefore becomes unavailable to be translated and understood by the reader.

The translation of the texts is a huge advantage to anybody interested in the world because it allows us to truly understand the culture, thoughts and feelings of people in different countries speaking different languages. This is also vital to knowing key facts and information about history, as back many years ago things were only able to be written down and therefore without the translation of literature being possible there would be many things that we wouldn't be aware of. Although this is not an example from history that was key to man kind finding out things about the past life, a very good example of literature in translation is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. This was written by Stieg Larsson, a Swedish novelist, in 2005. This book was translated to 15 different languages became a best seller in europe, but even more impressively in the United States. This would not have been possible without the power of literature in translation, and this is only one example of many times that a novel has been translated to a different language and become a best seller in that country. 

This is key for our unit as well, as we are reading Thief and the Dogs which is an originally arabic written novel, was translated into not only English but many other languages too, and won awards. This novel has also been able to be studied in the english language now which really shows the quality of the story.