Nice and Accurate Translations: Translating Good Omens and Translation Problems
Summary
In this article, the author attempts to analyse the problems in translating the 1990 comedic fantasy, Good Omens, written by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. In the first section, the author tackles various translation problems concerning the translation of proper names, the setting of the novel, the forms of humour used in the novel, and the writing style of both authors. Solutions are presented to solve each problem, and a comparison is made to the existing translation, Hoge Omens, by Venugopalan Ittekot. After this analysis, an excerpt of a translated passage from the novel is presented, annotated to show the decisions made in translating, and a reasoning behind these choices.