Ivo: Lena, I have read the English version of chapter six. You changed my joke.
Lena: Yes.
Ivo: You changed it completely. In my version the old man says: "Even my shadow wants a pension." In yours, he says: "I'm so old that my shadow has been downsized."
Lena: Do you like it?
Ivo: That is not the question. It is not what I wrote.
Lena: It is what you meant. In your language, "pension" and "shadow" rhyme. In mine, they do not. Your joke dies if I keep your words. It lives if I change them.
Ivo: A translation should be faithful.
Lena: To what? To the words, or to the laughter?
Ivo: To me.
Lena: I thought we agreed that I should be faithful to the reader.
Ivo: You are very clever, and I find it extremely irritating.
Lena: Thank you. Shall I add a footnote with your original?
Ivo: A footnote destroys a joke.
Lena: So does a literal translation. Between two deaths, I prefer a funeral with a good speech.
Ivo: ...Read me the English line again.
Lena: "I'm so old that my shadow has been downsized."
Ivo: In English I'm funnier.
Lena: In English, you are certainly more employed.
Fiction note: All people, places and events in this dialogue are fictional.