From: rcena@... (Resty Cena)
Date: 2002-01-11T14:04:04+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby books

Speaking of translations, Matz original Ruby manual, which someone
"literally" translated into English, is a delight to read. You could
almost see the author peering through the pages, smiling at some of
his jokes, and generally having fun. The good feeling was contagious.
Last night I was reading A Gentle Introduction to Haskell by Paul
Hudak, et al; what a contrast.
rmc


"James Britt (rubydev)" <james@rubyxml.com> wrote in message news:<PGEPJIFLPEPOHCKEEEIKMEEFCMAA.james@rubyxml.com>...
> > In fear of the translation...
> > <off-topic?>
> >   ...what make it so hard to translate books from English to German?
> >   I've seen _very_ good books with an, er, improvable quality of the
> > translation...
> > </off-topic?>
> 
> I suspect it's the same things that makes it so hard to translate from English to English:
> idioms and colloquial use. Basically, an author's style.
> 
> By style I don't mean whether a book is well-written, I mean the inherent personality,
> which almost all good writing will have. Much of my writing starts off with some amount of
> my personality showing through.  Sometimes that manifests itself as "wise-ass New Yorker."
> I have to go back and "fix" things because not everyone has the same sense of humor (as is
> clear on this list, for example) nor the same cultural references.
> 
> The rhythm and tone of writing is hard to translate, because they rely so much on the
> sound of the words.
> 
> Le Ton Beau de Marot: In Praise of the Music of Language, by Douglas R. Hofstadter, is a
> very good account of the challenges of translation.
> 
> 
> James
> 
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Stephan
> >
> >