I need to read Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha, and I already have a Dover Thrift Edition. My school says to get the Fagles translated version. Is there a big difference in the versions, and should I buy the other version?
I don’t know about this specific book, but in general there can be a big difference between how different translators treat the same material.
When you translate something from one language to another, you have to make all kinds of choices. For example, if the author uses a word with two meanings, there probably isn’t a word with exactly those same two meanings in the other language. The translator has to choose one. Or lets say the author uses a word that has no translation in the other language, so that the translator has to use a whole phrase to convey the same concept. Every translator would come up with a different phrase.
Recently, at a translation conference, a man who had just translated War and Peace asked a room full of translators to translate a very simple sentence. Everyone came up with something slightly different:
She stood up and went to the door.
She got up and walked to the door.
She got to her feet and answered the door. …
You get the idea. Now, imagine what it would be like with complicated, philosophical sentences like in Siddhartha? Would you have trouble following the class discussions, or finding the quotes your teacher thought were important? Could you participate in the discussions without throwing the other students off?
Maybe that’s a longer answer than you wanted, but basically I’d try to get the translation everyone else is using.
Oh – I almost forgot – enjoy the book, it’s a good one!!