Really bad translations

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Really bad translations

1bnielsen
Jun 22, 2021, 4:59 am

I recently came across the Danish translation of a math book (David Wells: Prime Numbers - The Most Mysterious Figures in Math). The Danish translation (Primtal - Matematikkens gådefulde tal fra A-Ø) is horrible as in: Don't believe anything you read in it before checking with the English original.

So my "problem" is that the original version should rate close to 5 stars and the translated version close to 0 stars.

As the translation is combined with the original the rating of the bad translation will affect the rating of the good original, which is a bit unfair.
This is certainly not the only bad translation in the world, so what do people normally do?

2MarthaJeanne
Editado: Jun 22, 2021, 5:33 am

I have often not given a rating, but written a review saying that the translation was not good. I usually write my reviews in English, even for books I read in German, but if the translation was really bad I would write a German review.

Prime Numbers - The Most Mysterious Figures in Math

3spiralsheep
Jun 22, 2021, 7:13 am

>1 bnielsen: I mention at the beginning that I'm reading a translation, and who the translator is, then review and rate as normal.

I also name the translator in my review when they're exceptionally good.

4bnielsen
Jun 22, 2021, 7:36 am

>2 MarthaJeanne: and >3 spiralsheep: Thanks! I've looked more closely at the errors and maybe the translation was good, but then the publisher had someone else do the typographic work and that person didn't know his p's from his q's.
Or sigma's from phi's :-(

5jjwilson61
Jun 22, 2021, 1:19 pm

It's the same problem as when an audio book has a horrible narrator. I'd probably try to make my rating based on the original print edition in either case. But ultimately the rating is your choice and it's effect on the work level rating shouldn't matter.