http://www.unesco.org/xtrans/bsstatexp.aspx?crit1L=5&nTyp=min&topN=50
Note this list doesn't count "group" works (see: The Torah, Koran, Bible, etc., which were either written over centuries or...erm, God, and putting HIM on the list just isn't fair, :p ) but still, for all our literature discussions, it's interesting to see who gets translated the most and thus, arguably, is the most widely-read (in one sense)...Shakespeare at #3 I can see, but some of these are ODD...
I can't find the methodology on the site. Is it just the number of translated editions each author has? If so then that's... pretty boring.
As native English speakers, I don't think a lot of us here realize how important and hard translation really is, especially for literature. The hardest thing I ever had to do in undergrad was translate some Luther, Kafka, and Goethe writings from German. It was required for my secondary degree, which was German. But at the same time, the fact that Agatha Christie has more works in translation than Marx is little more than trivia. Apart from the fact that they're both writers there's pretty much nothing else in common.
If I didn't know better I'd think this was just a make-work project now used as bait to get hits to their website. But who ever heard of a United Nations organization wasting time and resources like that? Oh...
Man, I once had to translate a poem from Mandarin to English and try to force it into an English style poetic meter...that was probably more brutal than if I had actually tried to write a poem from scratch. So, as Invictus says, translation is hard, and the more technical a work is, the harder it is to translate. So an accessible novel would be easier to translate than a treatise on philosophy, to say nothing of the fact that some nations will not allow works like Lenin's or any other person with a viewpoint they see antithetical to their country. Agatha Christie and Jules Verne don't have a lot to object to in their works.
Most songs, poems, et cetera et cetera are not direct word for word translations, and the translator is expected to find a way to make it still work as a song, poem, et cetera. This might be a problem with Shakespeare, as he occasionally goes into poetry.
It's not that hymns and songs like 99 Luftballons "translate well," it's that someone translated them well, if you get my meaning. And yes, people just kind of wing it all the time. Mandarin to English and keeping it a poem was tough, because Mandarin concepts of what constitutes a poem and English concepts aren't really on the same page, even if you could literally translate it word for word (which you can't anyway, since sentence structure is super different).
Draugnar, why do always have to try and one-up people when you don't actually know what you're talking about? 99 Luftballons does not translate as red balloons but just balloons, literally air balloons. The lyrics, while they follow the same plot, are very different. That's why I mean by winging it. Translating lyrics has to fit the tune of the song, so since the German part about gasoline canisters does not fit into The tune in English they have to basically just rewrite that part and others. Same, I assume with the others.
Dude, just because you can recognize the word replacement in son titles doesn't mean you know anything about this. I don't even, really, I just got my feet wet in this mind crushingly boring discipline and can appreciate how endlessly complicated it gets. There almost no more intellectually challenging task.
Gotta give majors props to John Mason Neale and Henry Sloane Coffin for Veni, Veni, Emmanuel. Google translate makes it clear that they did a great job!
Veni, veni Emmanuel;
Captivum solve Israel,
Qui gemit in exilio,
Privatus Dei Filio.
Gaude! Gaude! Emmanuel,
Nascetur pro te, Israel!
I came, Emmanuel;
Ransom captive Israel,
Who mourns in lonely exile
Son of God.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel;
Born for you, Israel!
American game in need of people.
and the ps is turner.
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