Translation is a whole academic field, with whole journals as well as of course books devoted to it. But I just read some interesting thoughts also at the December 27, 2009, post at http://rickmarshall.blogspot.com/ . By the way, my 2nd volume of Jataka tales so far which is from a different translator (W.H.D. Rouse) is more enjoyable -- he says he made a real effort to reflect the feel of the original writing's sentence length etc. (from the Pali language).
Also, so far he as well as the 1st volume's translator (Robert Chalmers) point out any interesting parallel stories they know from other Buddhist writings as well as other culture's tales. Which is fun for anyone interested in folklore.
Though my Jataka tales translations are from the late 1800s, they are based on a critical edition. However, I need to re-check before I do much more work to make sure there isn't a newer and better translation out since I made my lists and choices years and years ago (and when I knew much less about South Asian literature).
Critical editions are marvelous, as they compare ancient manuscripts for the hopefully most authentic original text and also point out which are later additions or changes (which in itself is very interesting in my work). Critical editions are one reason I'm improving my French, as one good translation of an important work for my work is only available so far in French. Of course I also learned how to utilize such work when I did ancient Greek in grad school...
Current time travel apparatus location: Institut Français de Pondichéry, Pondicherry, India
That's a wonderful place, by the way, both intellectually and aesthetically -- I can still feel the cool breezes from the nearby ocean and see the shady rooms when I look at photos from there, and I treasure the books we got in their bookshop: http://www.ifpindia.org/ .
