The appalling use of “gotten.”

 

I recently read an American translation of a German detective novel. The plot and characterisations within the novel were excellent. There was, however, serious overuse of the word “gotten” in the translation.

 

Examples: -

 

….they went over what they’d gotten (learned) from that mornings work.

 

We’ve gotten (received) a complaint from…..

 

….she hadn’t gotten (taken) a good look the evening before.

 

She may have gotten the wrong date… (Possibly she had the wrong date…)

 

I’d gotten here extra early. I still had things to finish. (I arrived here extra early, I still had things to finish.)

 

He’d just gotten home one hour earlier and…. (he’d only arrived home one hour earlier and…)

 

….sweat had gotten his half of the bedsheets so wet…(….sweat had made his half of the bedsheets so wet….)

 

Then our murderer could have gotten out of costume. (Then our murderer could have changed costume.)

 

Irene’s cheeks had gotten slightly pink from… (Irene’s cheeks became slightly pink from…)

 

….they hadn’t gotten much further than they’d been a week ago. (….they hadn’t progressed much further than they’d been a week ago.)

 

We’ve gotten a master key from…. (We’ve been given a master key by…)

 

 

And so it went on through the book, making for an annoying read of an otherwise excellent story.

 

This is such a lazy way of writing. I find “gotten” used ever more extensively in American writing and translations.

 

The other irritant in American writing, and now sadly creeping into English writing, is the removal of the preposition of.

 

She looked out the window. (She looked out of the window. She looked through the window.)

 

Out the door and in the garden… (Out of the door and in the garden…)

 

Jumping out the pan into…. (Jumping out of the pan into…)

 

Any decent author ought to be able to write without using either got or gotten. The getting, gotten, and lack of “of” in American English destroys precise expression while at the same time producing an impoverished language.

 

Translation v Interpretation

 

I remember listening to a radio programme about translation and interpretation. US President Ronald Regan’s polyglot Russian interpreter said that direct translations can cause confusion and misunderstanding unless accompanied by interpretation. For instance, well known phrases or satire in one language may be meaningless, or even offensive, in direct translation without appropriate interpretation.

 

In my interest of English translations of Chinese poetry, my favourite is Herbert A. Giles 1845-1935. Giles united “rhythm and liberalness with wonderful dexterity” according to fellow translator Arthur Waley.

 

Direct translations of Chinese poetry to English are difficult, often producing uninteresting verse. Translation with some of the aforementioned rhythm, liberalness and dexterity produces a much better interpretation. Below is an example of the same poem by different translators.

 

TEARS

 

A fair girl draws the blind aside,

  And sadly sits with drooping head;

I see her burning teardrops glide,

  But know not why those tears are shed.

          Herbert A. Giles.

 

A BITTER LOVE

 

How beautiful she looks, opening the pearly casement,

And how quiet she leans, and how troubled her brow is!

You may see the tears now, bright on her cheek,

But not the man she so bitterly loves.

          Witter Bynner.

  

SORROW UNTOLD

 

A fair lady rolls up her pearl window blind;

Sitting late within, she knits her moth eyebrows.

One sees only the wet traces of her tears,

But knows not whom she is hating!

          Sun Yu.

 

 For me Giles version is the better.

 

Similarly: -

 

NIGHT THOUGHTS

 

I wake, and moonbeams play around my bed,

Glittering like hoar-frost to my wandering eyes;

Up towards the glorious moon I raise my head,

Then lay me down – and thoughts of home arise.

          Herbert A. Giles.

 

IN THE QUIET NIGHT

 

So bright a gleam on the foot of my bed-

Could there have been a frost already?

Lifting myself to look, I found that it was moonlight,

Sinking back again, I thought suddenly of home.

          Witter Bynner

 

 

In the same way, translating books from foreign language to American English, needs a degree of interpretation to bring out the ample breadth and richness of the English language, instead of the cramped and narrow style of so many American writers today.

 

 

Charles.