Rules of Translation

It seems that every translator has hard and fast rules for translation: every translator must be faithful to the exact words, every translator must make the original read smoothly in any language, get a friend to read the translation, consider your work original, consider it a reflection of the original, etc. 

It's starting to seem like there is no true method of translation. If Vladimir Nabokov and Suzanne Jill Levine were both successful with their translations, with differing philosophies, it might just be that one's approach must feel worthy of justifying in ten or one hundred pages to make them effective translations.

Nabokov's "A schoolboy’s boner is less of a mockery in regard to the ancient masterpiece than its commercial interpretation or poetization...The clumsiest literal translation is a thousand times more useful than the prettiest paraphrase" (113) is just as passionate as Levine's "Because of what is lost and can be gained in crossing the language barrier, because of the inevitable rereading that occurs in transposing a text from one context to another, a translation must subvert the original" (92). 

While Robert Bly's "Eight Steps" are helpful for a novice translator like myself, it is even more helpful to know that not one approach must be taken to achieve an effective translation. 

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