Could anyone please comment and correct the following paragraph?
Translation is at best an echo.
-George Borrow
Translation is not a matter of words only: it is a matter of making intelligible a whole culture.
- Anthony Burgess
Where did the name ‘Beloved Enemies’ come from?
The limits of literary translation adequacy have perhaps been discussed since the first translations appeared. The two quotes above are representative of two poles of opinion
s on the matter. While discussing them
, it occurred to us that the relationship between an original literary text and its translation can perhaps be described with a phrase originally used by a certain young boy we know
, referring to his younger brother as
, "мой любимый враг". In English
, this literally means “my beloved enemy”. The phrase captured, for us, the idea of two things
that are close and needed by each other, yet inevitably conflicting.
In (or 'to') our minds, the idea of love and conflict between siblings generalized
in our minds to the relationship between translations
, (and) so
(this is why) we chose it for the name of our store.
Good writing, Olga.