Translated literature

Is literature - especially poetry - different after translation? Short answer, yes. Long answer, still yes. I suppose I'll need to elaborate for it to actually be the long answer, though.

First thing to consider in translation would be language: the language of the original piece of literature, the language the literature is being translated to and the difference of those two. How does one translate metric poetry without changing the message? A stanza written in Russian, English or Finnish are quite different from each other, as even the morphology of the languages differs quite greatly. How can you translate metric lines without either changing the meter, the message, or both? What about names? In much of literature, especially fantasy, names carry meanings and implications. Should they be translated, especially as they are often so tightly wound into culture that if translated, they lose half of their meaning? What about other cultural reference? Of course, even time dims culture so that, without actually seeking the information, you will not know what has been meant and what underlying currents can be found in any given text or message.

Translated fantasy and science fiction prose from the 90's (translated to Finnish, that is) is an outstanding example of astoundingly badly translated literature. For example, in Robin Hobb's Farseer books' Finnish translation, no one is wearing pants: the original piece has everyone wearing leggings, which the translator has translated as gaiters (säärystimet). I suppose he might've been meaning breeches, but the effect was quite confusing as I first read the translated books. Translatory variation and dissonance, especially with names, appears throughout the decade: in Hobb's books, in Gaiman's translated works, in Pratchett's translations... Earlier translated works of the aforementioned genres are rather interesting reading as well as words have been made up - a brilliant example of this being Kalpa Kassinen and Liskiö (you may google these if you wish). Most of the fantasy and scifi translated to Finnish in the previous century does stand out as being slipshod, as if no one actually bothered. Then again, how well could it be translated?

As I mentioned previously, I had quite the epiphany while discussing Walt Whitman's Song of Myself: I read it in English, while the rest of the participants read the Finnish translation. Song of Myself is not exactly metric, so one could have translated it meaning to meaning. Some phrases had, however, been changed from positive to negative, or the other way around: some words were missing and others had been added, to give atleast a different implication, if not a completely different meaning.

All this sparked a question: can translated poetry be discussed as the same piece as the original? Personally I have yet to see translated literary works that would stand in comparison to the original: while they can be discussed in reference, they aren't actually the same. Sometimes even discussion in reference can be considered impossible: if one were to discuss a poem, and its implications and references are different in the two works read by the people discussing, it rather feels like one was discussing two different poems. How far apart can the translation and the original be from one another until they should be considered two separate works, or should they be considered such from the beginning? How can you draw the line?