Emil à Lonneberg ?  : Une comparaison entre deux traductions françaises d’un livre d’enfant suédois

Abstract Literary translations can be done in different ways and from different principles. While some people are advocates of the free translation, others believe that a good translation should always be made as exact and as close to the original as possible. However, due to structural and cultural differences between the source language and the target language, it is not always possible to realize a translation that is altogether faithful to the original. Changing translation principles can also be a reason to make a new, more exact translation of a novel that has already been translated. This was the case when the Swedish children’s book Pippi Långstrump, written by Astrid Lindgren, was the object of a new French translation. The first translation had been greatly criticised because of the many cuts and additions made by the French translator who had wanted to adapt the text to the presumed moral values of the French readers. This essay is a comparison between the two French translations of another book by Astrid Lindgren: Emil i Lönneberga. The book is somewhat difficult to translate due to, for example, the cultural phenomena mentioned in the text and the dialect spoken by the main character. The comparison revealed several big differences between the two translations, inter alia the handling of the dialect, but also the translation of the proper nouns and the narrative technique. The conclusion of the comparison was that the new translation was more accurate and faithful to the original than the first translation.