smallwhite wrote:I grew up reading only native-written Chinese (my L1). Recently, I read parts of a few novels translated into Chinese, and boy, were they horrible. I felt I was learning Chinese all over again just like you said you were French. Not that they're incorrect, but they feel really foreign. You can grab a few books translated into your mother tongue and see for yourself.
This does depend on a number of factors. Some translators like to highlight the 'foreigness' of the text, others like to hide it. Being faithful to the original can mean different things to different people, and result in very different translations.
The translation that stands out in my mind as being the most horrible one I have experienced was a translation from Russian into English of 'Night Watch' by Sergei Lukyanenko, due mostly to poor editing and some awful translation choices. But other than that, I can only really recall enjoyable translations into English. Recent highlights have been 'Oliver VII' - published by a company which specialises in translated literature - and Michael King's translation of 'The Cyberiad' by Stanislaw Lem. The latter is notable because Lem has apparently been a victim of poor translations previously, which negatively affected his reception in anglophone countries.
My point here is that a translation doesn't have to be bad, or to read unnaturally, although some are awful. A lot of the quality depends on the quality of the translator, their aims with their translation and the goals of the publisher - the same can be said of any book on that count. A good indication on whether a translation is worth your time is checking how popular it is with native speakers, and reading their reviews to see if they mention any clunkiness or unnaturalness in the language. Also, be aware that blockbusters and page turners may be popular in translation due to their plot rather than the quality of the writing - just as they often are in the original.