Transloosely Literated. A book's journey from one language into another can be perilous. The Russian title for J. D. Salinger's classic tale of adolescence translates as “Above the Precipice in the Rye.” A clerk in a Yokohama bookshop once told John Steinbeck's wife that yes, he had a copy of Steinbeck's “Angry Raisins.” Has this bumpy road gotten any smoother in recent years?
I wonder how the title Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West (one of the classic novels of the 20th century) would translate into other languages.
If Babelfish is any indication, it may translate something like this:
English to Chinese and back:
Blood meridian or is red in West's evening
English to Japanese and back:
Meridian of blood west, or redness of evening
English to French and back:
Meridian line of blood, or the redness of evening in l' west
English to German and back:
Blood Meridian or the evening turning red in the west