Alice in Many Tongues, the Translations of Alice in Wonderland

by Warren Weaver

Alice in Wonderland, one of the most famous and best-loved books ever written, has been translated into more than forty languages, including Bengali, Chinese, Swahili, Thai, and Welsh. The world-wide success of the book is all the more surprising since so much of its charm and flavor lies in the author's very special style and language. The parodies, puns, jokes based on logic, manufactured words, and other curious expressions with which the book is studded would seem to defy translation.
The heart of the present book is an examination of the translation history of Alice in Wonderland, with particular attention to the degree of success with which various translators have met its challenges.
Alice, Mr. Weaver contends, is really two books, a book for children and a book for adults.

Genres: Language, Nonfiction

147 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1999

Reviews

[Mythlee · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was expecting a much different book! Only Chapter VI ("How Can Alice be Translated?") really discusses and compares some of the many translations, and although the set-up for the comparison is good, I'd hoped for more depth.

In Chapter VI, the author identifies 5 challenges in translating the mad tea-party scene: (A) parodied verse, (B) puns, (C) manufactured or nonsense words, (D) jokes which involve logic, and (E) thwarted conventions. (Weaver calls this last category "twists of meaning," but his examples focus more on a surprising disregard for rules of etiquette or other conventional social formulas.)

For each category, he provides examples from the selected chapter and suggests different broad ways the translation challenge might be addressed (including the possibility of failing to recognize the challenge at all [!] or giving up and omitting the bit entirely).

He then discusses the different approaches to this particular challenge category taken by translators in 14 different languages, illustrating them primarily with retranslated English. So he mostly does not quote the published translation at all, but only gives the literal re-translation back to English of that published translation (made by someone fully fluent in both languages).

The retranslated English is actually a very clever idea, but I'd have preferred to see fewer languages discussed in more detail and fully illustrated with excerpts of the published translation (not just the retranslation).

[Ella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alice in Many Tongues is a very interesting and engaging read that tells the story not only of Lewis Carroll and his original manuscripts, but also of how Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland began its long journey across languages and cultures. The book traces the earliest translations into German, French, Swedish, Danish, Italian, Dutch, and Russian, and then follows the remarkable expansion of Alice into countless other tongues around the world.

What makes this study especially compelling is how clearly Weaver explains the unique challenges of translating Alice. These books are not just for children, they are layered works filled with puns, nonsense words, parodied poems, linguistic jokes, and subtle logic games. Weaver shows how translators must wrestle with meaning, sound, rhythm, and cultural context, often having to reinvent passages rather than translate them literally in order to preserve their wit and charm.

Overall, this is an insightful and enjoyable exploration of why Alice is so difficult, and so rewarding, to translate. It deepens appreciation for the ingenuity of Carroll’s writing and for the creativity of the translators who helped Wonderland flourish in so many languages. A must-read for Carroll enthusiasts, language lovers, and anyone fascinated by the art of translation.

[Claire Abs]

to-read

[Max Nemtsov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Книжица американского пионера машинного перевода и увлеченного коллекционера-алисоведа Уивера, которой столько же лет, сколько мне, вполне занимательна, но имеет, боюсь, только археологическое значение. Во-первых, Уивер - собиратель, поэтому все, что касается изданий Алисы, изданий первых ее переводов и - особенно - попыток анализа того, что с текстом сделали разные переводчики, - только описательно. Мило, но едва ли пища для ума.

Самое ценное в ней, пожалуй, - довольно подробное воспроизведение значимых кусков переписки Кэрролла с издателями насчет продвижения Алисы на иностранных рынках: скольлько автор получал (в среднем 17 фунтов с 1000 экз.), как хотел, чтобы цены были общедоступны (2 талера в Германии - дорого), как контролировал качество переводов и издания (дотошно) и как санкционировал подстановки текста (переводчики были вольны пародировать стишки и песенки, существовавшие в их культурах).

Переводы на русский едва затронуты, и очерк их изобилует понятными неточностями: писалась книжка до эпохи исторического материализма, т.е. до выхода перевода Демуровой (который появился в Болгарии только в 1966-м) и прочих советских переводчиков, и каких-либо данных получить от советских бюрократов Уивер не мог (описание его отношений с мадам Багровой из Ленинки поднимается до вершин античной драмы: в Ленинке его натурально послали на идеологический нахуй, когда он спросил про первый русский перевод, потому что первое русское издание, как мы узнаем из других источников (послесловия к академической Алисе 1991 года издания, например), хранилось в Ленинграде, в биб-ке Салтыкова-Щедрина; и т.д.). В общем, Уивер работал с переводом Набокова, про который нам много чего известно, в частности - что он сосет большое время (да, и Уивер в начале 60-х явно имел очень малое представление о том, кто такой Набоков; кто такой Шандор Вереш, он не знал вообще).

Его попытки реконструкции переводов тоже слабоваты - он подошел к этому как упорный любитель, ну и без знания, в частности, русского языка, понаписал глупостей в духе известного анекдота про книгу о летчиках ("Ас Пушкин"), написанную каким-то киргизом по фамилии Учпедгиз. В диких временах, в общем, довелось ему жить, в середине ХХ века...

[Maxene · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hopping this book would grapple with how different translators approached the difficulty of translating Alice in Wonderland, but unfortunately only the last chapter of the book was dedicated to this subject. The duration of the book wove the story of the creation and background of Alice and Wonderland, including a lengthy and rather dull chapter dedicated to various dates of translation and back-and-forth with the author.

[Shayne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clearly the work of an affectionate collector, this book is a lot of fun, especially for anyone interested in translation and language. Will have to read Alice again.

[Annamaria · Rating 3 out of 5]

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