A Faithful Version
Written by Studio AM.
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Halvard Sunde spent thirty-one years translating one poet. After his death, the obituaries praised his fidelity to the original work. Yet fidelity had meant different things to him at different points in his career.
He began as a literalist. His early volumes followed the original wording closely, with footnotes explaining unfamiliar expressions. Critics praised their rigor. For a decade, he accepted that judgment. Then, rereading his work, he began to feel that the sentences were accurate but the poems sounded stiff.
In later volumes, he allowed himself more freedom. He changed a line's structure when the original order sounded awkward in translation. He replaced an unfamiliar proverb with one his readers would recognise. His publisher worried that these choices went too far. Sunde argued that a translation should preserve a poem's effect as well as its wording. Some readers found the new versions more moving.
Recognition of his work brought an irony: it arrived posthumously from a scholar who preferred his early method. She praised the literal translations as his most faithful work. The quality she admired was the one he had come to question. They agreed that fidelity mattered, but disagreed about what a translator should be faithful to.
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Questions
Choose an answer. The explanation appears after you answer.
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Question 1 of 4
Which statement best expresses the passage's central point?
The answer is C: Sunde changed his idea of faithful translation, then was praised for the method he had rejected.
Sunde first valued exact wording and later valued a poem's effect. After his death, a scholar praised the early method he had rejected.
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Question 2 of 4
How did the critics respond to Sunde's early volumes?
The answer is A: They called the exactness of the work rigor and praised it.
The critics praised the rigor of the early volumes, which followed the original wording closely.
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Question 3 of 4
Why is the scholar's praise described as an irony?
The answer is D: The scholar praised the method Sunde had come to question.
Sunde changed his approach because literal accuracy seemed to weaken the poems. The scholar praises that earlier approach, reversing his later judgment.
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Question 4 of 4
What does 'posthumously' mean in this passage?
The answer is B: after the person's death
The passage opens with Sunde's death and obituaries. 'Posthumously' means the recognition came after he died.
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