Teacher, I of course see your point, there would be no use writing a translation at all when the reader has to be an Anglistikstudent in order to fully understand it. Re the names, I still think, i'd prefer the puns to be lost for an non-english speaker, as a germanised name of an English character would just sound awkward. I don't even think that they really are "telling names" (the thing about Landen's name having to do with luck or something), I'd say that's already over-analysing it.
Re how translation works and how to find an appropriate translation for a certain word or text or pun, I absolutely do agree with you. I don't criticise a translator for leaving one or another pun out, because he cannot find an equivalent, I do criticise him when I think he could have come up with one and failed, or when he came up with something which isn't appropriate at all. (Just in case you're interested in a detailed example of what I criticise in a certain translation,
click here) Of course not every joke or pun can be translated and therefore has to be just left out, but it's a shame when a translator overlooks opportunities to translate them, for example into a slightly different joke or pun which fits into the authors style of writing.
Post Edited (09-11-03 16:05)
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Colourless green ideas sleep furiously.
(N. Chomsky 1957)