Edited by Alastair Walker, Eric Hoekstra, Goffe Jensma, Wendy Vanselow, Willem Visser and Christoph Winter
[NOWELE Supplement Series 33] 2022
► pp. 149–160
This article considers the art of translating from Dutch into Frisian by Jarich Hoekstra and Harke Bremer in De Grutte Barribal, a translation of one of the adventures of Ollie B. Bommel, a fictive gentleman created by Maarten Toonder and well-known in the Netherlands. I make an in-depth comparison and analysis of a sample of Dutch sentences and their Frisian translations. The success of the translation resides in the following factors: (1) the translation is more specific, more sensorial or more subjective than what is conveyed by the somewhat more abstract Dutch language; (2) in specifying things, the translators have a perfect feeling of contextual information, based on a correct estimation of the plot and the characters. My observations link up with the view of translation as the rendering of spirit and style (Brogan 1993; for theory construction, see also Nida & Taber 1969; Venuti 2012, 2013; Verstegen 1993).
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Article language: Dutch