Yet another post about Bambi? I fear so.
You see, the reader who asked me to compare the old translation by Whittaker Chambers with the new one only knew about one new translation (this one). But there is a another – the New York Review of Books edition by Damion Searls!
Searls’ translation came out in 2022, the same year as the other new translation, but didn’t get as much attention. That’s a shame because it’s good – better than the other one, frankly.
The first thing I did when this book arrived in the mail was turn to page 109 to see how Bambi’s line “Der Arme…” was translated and I’m very pleased to report that it’s correctly rendered as “Poor thing…” Props to Damion Searls, the first person to get that right in a published English translation!
He also correctly translates “Eisvogel” as “Kingfisher” in the same chapter. And he adds many options to the already complicated issue of how to translate all the different species of animals. For example, Salten’s “Rohrhuhn” is a “sedge-hen” in Chambers, a “coot” in the other new translation, and a “moorhen” in Searls. If you love taxonomy, get all three translations and have fun deciding which is best.
There are other places where Chambers’ version has been criticized for imprecision, where the other guy’s 2022 version is just as imprecise but in different ways, while Searls nails it. One example is where Bambi sees insects crawling in the grass and asks his mother what they are; only Searls accurately translates her response (“Das sind die Kleinen”) as “Those are the little ones.”
So in conclusion, if you want to buy a new translation of Bambi that is accurate and well-written, go for the NYRB edition by Damion Searls.
Do the others say “those are the smalls”?
Chambers has “Those are ants” and the other guy has “Those are insects.”
Just discovered your blog and as a perpetual (struggling) German student I’d love to be notified when you’ve published a new post. Do you have a newsletter option anywhere?