I wrote the first draft of 'Madame Bovary' without studying the previous translations, although I gathered them and took the occasional peek.
If a translation doesn't have obvious writing problems, it may seem quite all right at first glance. We readers, after all, quickly adapt to the style of a translator, stop noticing it, and get caught up in the story.
The existence of another, competing translation is a good thing, in general, and only immediately discouraging to one person - the translator who, after one, two, or three years of more or less careful work, sees another, and perhaps superior, version appear as if overnight.
I think the close work I do as a translator pays off in my writing - I'm always searching for multiple ways to say things.
Of course we may have any number of translations of a given text - the more the better, really.
Often, the idea that there can be a wide range of translations of one text doesn't occur to people - or that a translation could be bad, very bad, and unfaithful to the original.
