getting away from the point of this thread a little ..but anyway..
..a translation is a translation ..not a resume or precis..but when considering the 'feel' of a piece there has to be some consideration of tone and style...I would still say that most accounts are fairly formal, being written down after the event and after time for reflexion...Obviousy a good translation will be technically accurate but it won't follow the original slavishly - thats what machines (& altavista ) do. The language being translated ordinarily has no importance for the target readership. It matters not one jot how brilliantly a particular expression has been rendered - accurately of course - since a non linguist can have no conception of the thought processes involved. The non-German speaker is interested only in a good read in their language. A good translator is not somebody who has three languages and can read in any of them - he simply has to be a good manipulator of his
own language. As I indicated to Ruy thats the nature of 'bilingualism' - you will never be as completely at home in either or all of your languages as a native speaker is in his - you may be able to read a German or English text comfortably enough but judging what might have been 'lost' and what impact this may have had on the 'feel' of a piece....not really..
I will concede that when looking at, say, ' JG 300 ' there were a number of instances of vulgar language 'toned' down and one crude incident slightly 're-written' but these don't detract from the overall feel at all..concrete examples of something being 'lost' in translation perhaps ..but not something that could be detected by the reader.
By the way if you go to
http://www.crellin.de (copywriting and translation) you 'll see a current job ad for translators of German into English ...sums up nicely what translation is about ..." demonstrate the ability to create English texts that are not word-for-word renderings of the German....no applications from non-native speakers even if you've spent 30 years in New York.."