>>25413472
it was bad

>>25413472
It was pre-ww2 and the translator was a poor victim of his time, fortunately with the new translation we’ve deconstructed the text enough that you won’t have to worry about such dangerous ideas that carried the world for millennia. You can instead now enjoy the effective autopsy of the text unmolested and engage with it as it was meant to be, from a detached bird’s eye view, never engaging with the ideas as if what the author wrote was meant to be taken seriously or literally.

>>25413472
If the old translation is really old, then a new one will update the vocabulary to match how the language has changed since the publication of the former. Think Sandys' translation of Metamorphoses vs. Humphries'. Sandys' still blows all other translations out of the water besides Golding's, however.

>>25413472
Sometimes they aren’t accurate enough or people in the past made genuine errors (like how most translations of Norse poetry translate jotun as giant, which is extremely bad as translation), sometimes it’s because the old translation was a long time ago and the language is now inaccessible when before it was common to know it, and sadly sometimes it’s because of contemporary agendas who are offended by the past having different moral values than us

Some haven't been translated directly from the original language, but from another translation.

>>25413472
You guys realize that Emily Wilson isn’t supposed to replace Fagles right? The reason Emily Wilson can re-interpret it is because a standard translation already exists.

>>25413480
Old translation: It was bad
New translation: It wasn't good

>>25413538
I commonly point to George Dasent's version of Njal's Saga vs. the Magnusson & Palsson translation:
Dasent:
>First of all, thou must ride home from the Thing, and by that time thy husband will have come back, and will be glad to see thee; thou must be blithe and buxom to him, and he will think a good change has come over thee, and thou must show no signs of coldness or ill−temper, but when spring comes thou must sham sickness, and take to thy bed. Hrut will not lose time in guessing what thy sickness can be, nor will he scold thee at all, but he will rather beg every one to take all the care they can of thee. After that he will set off west to the Firths, and Sigmund with him, for he will have to flit all his goods home from the Firths west, and he will be away till the summer is far spent.
>But when men ride to the Thing, and after all have ridden from the Dales that mean to ride thither; then thou must rise from thy bed and summon men to go along with thee to the Thing; and when thou art "all−boun," then shalt thou go to thy bed, and the men with thee who are to bear thee company, and thou shalt take witness before thy husband's bed, and declare thyself separated from him by such a lawful separation as may hold good according to the judgment of the Great Thing, and the laws of the land; and at the man's door the main door of the house, thou shalt take the same witness.
Magnusson & Palsson:
>First, you must ride home now from the Althing. Your husband will have returned, and he will welcome you warmly. You must be affectionate towards him and compliant, and he will think the situation much improved. On no account must you show him any indifference. But when spring comes you must feign illness and take to your bed. Hrut will not try to guess the nature of your illness, and will not reproach you; indeed, he will tell everyone to take the greatest care of you. Then he will set off with Sigmund west to the fjords. He will be busy fetching all his goods from the west, and will be away from home far into the summer.
>Later, when it is time for people to ride to the Althing, and when all those who intend to be there have left the Dales, you must get up from your bed and summon men to accompany you on a journey. When you are quite ready to leave, you must walk to your bedside with those who are going to travel with you. There at your husband’s bedstead you must name witnesses and declare yourself lawfully divorced from him; do it as correctly as possible in accordance with the procedural rules of the Althing and the common law of the land. You must then name witnesses once again at the main door.
Dasent abounds with too much archaicism to be easily enjoyed, and has pointlessly long-winded and unpleasant constructions such as the 100+ word monstrosity of a sentence that begins with 'But when men ride to the Thing'

That said Magnusson & Palsson is out of print and the Cook translation is the 'new' one, but I don't find it an improvement

Idk we desperately needed/still need new translations in Italian because our guys used to make everything sound grand, musical and so on before the 80s/90s. while thats worthwhile on its own and is really pleasant to read, its not tolstoj stubbornly repeating words, being clumsy on purpose etc.

>>25413679
Dynamic vs. formal equivalence in a nutshell.

>>25413559
Thank you Will Caxton, now back to bed.

>>25413472
the old translation is public domain

>>25413472
i need to profit from my studies

>>25413472
Trying to read Le Morte d'Arthur is a struggle since English has changed significantly since then.

>>25414375
You're fucking retarded if you can't read the original Malory. It's not even Chaucer.

>>25414342
This. A new translation can be marketed.

>>25414886
I can read it just fine but that doesn't mean it isn't more difficult than a modern text. Some words are just used in ways that are no longer conventional.

>>25414970
Malory isn't harder than Shakespeare and is easier than Spenser. If you said Chaucer you could be excused.

>>25413472
Most translators back then spoke [language] as well as jeets speak English today.

>>25415059
>as well as jeets speak English today.
Jeets don't speak English well. Are you saying folks back then couldn't speak [language]?

>>25415080
>Jeets don't speak English well.
Exactly.
>folks back then couldn't speak [language]?
Not well enough.
I'm a frenchfag and I've read some awful burger-to-french translations over the years.

>>25413472
>What was wrong with the old translation?
All translations are bad.

>>25413472
>What was wrong with the old translation?
not selling enough. time to reboot.

>>25415027
You're not denying my point you're just being a faggot pointing out that something harder exists. Kill yourself.

>>25415359
>stop calling me retarded
kill yourself retard