kareina

One of my favourite books growing up was Anne of Green Gables; I have read it many, quite probably literally hundreds of, times in my life. Therefore it was one of the first books I obtained translated into Swedish, since I know the story so well even in my first year in Sweden I didn't have to pause while reading it to look up words, I could tell from context plus my own memory of the story what everything meant.

Now that I am making it a habit of reading books at the same time as I listen to the audio version I have purchased an audio version of this book, and am enjoying listening to/reading it. Until I hit places where the translator completely left behind the words of the original and put in something totally new. Just now a chapter ended by deleting one of my favorite quotes in the book and putting in new word that are completely out of character.

At the end of the chapter En storm i ett vattenglas (originally "A tempest in the school teapot"), when Marilla finds Anne crying because she has been busy imagining how, when she and Dianna grow up, Dianna will get married and the two girls will be parted forever Marilla first tries to hide her amused reaction, then laughs outright, then (when she recovers enough to speak) says "Well, Anne Shirley, if you must borrow trouble, for pity's sake, borrow it handier home. I should think you had an imagination, sure enough."

For reasons I cannot understand the translator (Karin Lidforss Jensen), chose not to translate the bit about borrowing trouble at all, and instead the text says:

--Kära barn, pustade Marilla så fort hon kunde tala, så du kan sitta och göra upp saker och ting! Men det kanske ändå för säkerhets skull vore skäl att du började med skolan igen, så du ändå hinner vara tillsammans med henne en liten rid innan hon gifter sig och du börjar hata hennes stackars man. Vad säger om mitt förslag? (Dear child, panted Marilla, as soon as she could speak, you can certainly sit and make things up! But, perhaps, for safety's sake it would be better to go back to school again, so that you have a chance to spend time with her before she gets married and you start hating her poor husband. What do you say about my suggestion?)

This departure from the original annoys me not only because it skips the fun quote about borrowing trouble, but because it had only been a couple of pages since Marilla resolved to follow Mrs. Lynde's advice about not mentioning School to Anne again till Anne mentioned it herself. There is no way Marilla would have ever said the bit about going back to school here!

(Edited to add, I can't even complain to the translator--according to Wikipedia she died 4 years before my father was born...)