Theodore Savory

LENGTH OF A TRANSLATION

There is often something to be learnt from a comparison between the length of a translation and the length of its original. A difference may be due in part to the structural character of the languages, as when the three Latin words Ex urbe condita must be rendered by the six English words “From the foundation of the city”, or conversely when seven French words “C’est moi qui l’a fait” are equated to three English words “I did it”. Alternatively, it may be due to the difference in the literary styles of the translator and the original author. This is shown when several translations of the same original are quantitatively compared. The first book of the Aeneid occupies 756 lines and Billson's translation of it is also 756 lines in length. James Rhoades needed 947 lines and Dryden 1,065. This last figure represents a 41 per cent increase, a fact which, in itself, must have a noticeable effect on the character of the result. 
	An unequalled example of expansion in translation is to be found in Tate and Brady’s version of Psalm 34. The Prayer Book reads “I will always give thanks unto the Lord”, where the adverb is a translation of the Vulgate’s one word, semper. In Hymn 290 this becomes

Through all the changing scenes of life,
In trouble and in joy,

or twelve words for one.
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Reference: The Art of Translation, Boston, The Writer, 1968, p. 51.