Guidelines for the Reviewing of Translations

Reviewers of published translations should focus on the discussion of the translation process.  Reviewers should reflect, therefore, on how well linguistic, cultural, social, and historical situations have been transplanted from a foreign language into English.  Although a short summary of the content of the book might be appropriate, reviewers should address the specific problems translators encountered in the text and what kinds of translation decisions they made to transfer the text into its English counterpart.  

Reviewers might want to consider some of the following questions in preparing their reviews.

New Translations

• How does the work fit into the overall context of the author's oeuvre?
• What are the characteristic features of the book?
• What is the level of foreignness of the work?
• Is the book the first translation of that author, if not what other translations of the author
  are available?
• Has the translator of the book under consideration translated other works by that author?
• Has the translator written a preface or introduction to the translation dealing with the reconstruction of the translation process and presented his or her view on the art and craft of translation?
• What are some of the specific difficulties that the translator had to cope with?
• How has the translator handled neologisms?
• Are there untranslatable words, expressions, or objects in the text?
• Has the translator chosen to include a scholarly apparatus?
• How has the translator handled items that need explanation, e.g., historical social, and cultural references?
• Are there language specific features that cannot be translated?
• Are there specific misreadings of passages, expressions, or words?
  Reviewers should show moments in the text that the translator has elegantly or creatively transferred into the English language.
• How does the quality of this translation compare with other translations of the same author by other translators?
• How is the translator acknowledged in the text?
• Is the material in bilingual form?
• Does the translator present his or her view on the art and craft of translation in a preface or introduction?
• Is the translation accurate?
• How does the quality of this translation compare with other translations of the same author by other translators?
• Is this a re-translation?
• Should the work have been translated?

Retranslations

• How many translations of this work are already available?
• Has the translator translated other works by that author?
• Was there a need for a retranslation?
• Does the retransaltion update the language for the contemporary reader?
• Does the retranslation respond to new scholarship on the text? 
• Does the retranslation present a different interpretation that reflects a the tenor of currrent critical thinking?
• Does the retranslation revitalize the dialogue about the work?