When should you convert a measurement in a local translation of a novel?
I think that it fits better in certain books to use the local measurement system, but is there a rule about this?
Are some books more tolerant to change than others, like fantasy novels? Or does it depend more on the target audience?
For example, if a I write that a character drank a gallon of milk, most people in my country would think that he drank a full 20 liter barrel of milk.
If I said that someone walked one mile, would it be translated as 1km, 1.6 km or just kept in miles? Does it depend of the accuracy that you need?
Edit: Reading the answers a lot of people are taking that question in a pure writing aproach, so I suppose that a translation differs little to the actually writing process, you shold be able to decide whenever to change or not to keep the original idea.
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2 answers
If it is a translation for a specific audience, (as the OP says) then I would translate to approximate equivalents, not exact equivalents. unless the tone was calling for exactness. So a gallon is not quite 4 liters, but I'd say 4 liters. A mile is 1.6km, but I'd say "one and a half kilometers", because a hundred meters isn't going to make that much difference to the story.
That's the key, whether the exact measurement makes a significant difference to the story. It almost never does, even if a character says "exactly one ounce" [28.35 grams], it probably wouldn't hurt the story to say "Exactly thirty grams". It's a novel, not a recipe book.
My personal approach in writing (not translation) is to use the metric system in the future, the English system in the past, and always hours, minutes and seconds, and days and weeks. I don't use months, I sometimes use seasons.
At at all times I try to use effort instead of measures: I put distance in terms of effort. A young adult medieval person can walk at 3 mph, a 300 mile walk is one hundred hours; about nine days walking every daylight hour.
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It depends on whether you are using the local unit of measure for information or for atmosphere. If you use modern units in an historical setting (kilometers and grams in ancient Egypt, for instance, readers will know how large a quantity you are talking about, but it will sound completely out of place since those units were not used at that time and most readers, even those who are largely historically illiterate, will probably realize that. It is a bit like talking about Cleopatra's cell phone or panty hose.
If you want an air of authenticity about your narrative, therefore, you should use cubits, or spans, or furlongs, or rods, or whatever unit of measure at least sounds like it comes from the period or society in question. But the consequence of this is that your readers will not know exactly how large the quantities are.
This may not matter very much. You are writing a novel, not an instruction manual. A vague general sense of proportion is probable all you need to give for most measures. This can often be created by providing another clue.
They walked 12 furlongs to the bridge, arriving around noon.
In most cases the feeling of authenticity is more important the the precision of the measures, so go for authenticity and, where measures matter at all, support a general sense of proportion with other textual clues.
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