Shoutout to that librarian in Austin who stopped me from buying a terrible translation

I was at a used book sale last month picking up a copy of The Three-Body Problem for my sci-fi book club. Some librarian I've never seen before walked up and told me the translation in that edition was hacked together by a bot and I'd hate it. She pointed me to a different translator's version that was $3 more. Six of us read it and we all agreed the bot translation would have ruined the discussion. Has anyone else had a stranger save them from a bad book purchase like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

mary61421d ago

Oh yeah, nothing says "immersion" like a samurai saying "I am going to the store to acquire provisions" every five minutes. That librarian basically saved your book club from a three-hour session of people going "wait, does that sound right to you?" I've seen bad translations turn epic space battles into something that reads like a corporate memo. Probably would've ended up with someone in your group printing out a "Translation Bingo" card for the next meeting. Librarians are basically the bouncers of good literature, keeping the bot-ridden nonsense out of your hands.

the_jade21d ago

Used to be one of those people who thought a translation is a translation, same story no matter what. Then a buddy lent me this Japanese novel where the dialogue sounded like a robot from the 90s. Completely killed the mood. So yeah, that librarian did you a solid big time. Good translations make characters feel real, bad ones make you want to throw the book across the room. Totally changed my view on paying a little extra for the right version.