What’s a topic or issue about which you’ve changed your mind?

The topic that changed my mind was about the writer Fyodor Dostoevsky.

When I lived in Germany, I regularly went to the library and borrowed books. It is the best way to read many books without paying, and luckily, the town’s library had a great variety of books. One day, I borrowed „The Idiot” by Fyodor Dostoevsky, which was obviously in German translation. When I started reading at home, the first pages, I couldn’t get into the story. Nevertheless, I continued reading, but the words seemed like chunks, and the paragraphs were like heavy blocks. I just couldn’t go with the flow of the story. So far, I had never given up reading a book; that book from Dostoevsky was the first one. I believed that I’m not fond of Dostoevsky’s work at all.

When I moved to Greece and went to the library, I made a new attempt to read Dostoevsky in Greek translation. I picked up the same book, „The Idiot, “ and surprisingly, I finished it reading. That made me, of course, change my mind about Dostoevsky since my first experience led me to prefer Leo Tolstoy.

At that point, we see how important a good book translation is. I remember during my Master’s Studies, we had a course about the translation of literature. There are so many aspects you must consider when translating a literature text, whether it’s a novel or a poem. First, you have to examine which connotations it has in its native form. Does it have any connection to traditional habits or evoke any specific feeling?  After considering these aspects, you must choose the right word in the translated language. Which word is equivalent to the origin word? Does it evoke the same feeling? What about the traditional connotations? Are these also fulfilled in the translation? All these details must be translated into another language, and in the final state, it should be read harmoniously.

We can see how complex the translation process is and the responsibility that lies on the shoulders of a translator because a good or a bad translation influences the new reader in shaping his opinion about the writer of the origin book, poem, or any other literature text.