Peter Farago answers “Which translation do you guys like the most?”

Azadeh Ghafari asked this question about The Plague:

Which translation do you guys like the most?

Peter Farago Robin Buss’s 2001 translation - so much better!

Les curieux événements qui font le sujet de cette chronique se sont produits en 194., à Oran. De l’avis…moreRobin Buss’s 2001 translation - so much better!

Les curieux événements qui font le sujet de cette chronique se sont produits en 194., à Oran. De l’avis général, ils n’y étaient pas à leur place, sortant un peu de l’ordinaire. À première vue, Oran est, en effet, une ville ordinaire et rien de plus qu’une préfecture française de la côte algérienne.

The first English translation, by Stuart Gilbert in 1948:

The unusual events described in this chronicle occurred in 194…, at Oran. Everyone agreed that, considering their somewhat extraordinary character, they were out of place there. For its ordinariness is what strikes one first about the town of Oran, which is merely a large French port on the Algerian coast, headquarters of the Prefect of a French ‘Department’.

In Robin Buss’s 2001 version seems to take fewer liberties:

The peculiar events that are the subject of this history occurred in 194–, in Oran. The general opinion was that they were misplaced there, since they deviated somewhat from the ordinary. At first sight, indeed, Oran is an ordinary town, nothing more that a French Prefecture on the coast of Algeria.

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