/lit/ - Literature

That's a good thing

>reading for plot period
might as read Shōnen Jump lmao

>>18652020
That’s not true. You can appreciate the translators rendition of the classic. It’s like a cover of a song. Sometimes they are pretty fucking good. That being said, if you read a translation of poetry you can’t say you like the poets style. You don’t know the poets style. You read the translators style. Which is generally why poems are better translated by other poets.

>>18652020
The Bible is a translation

>>18652020
that only applies to works translated from french and english to other languages,

Most other languages are ugly and lost prose in translations doesn't really matter because it was ugly in the first place, therefore in non english works of literature plot is the only thing that matters

>>18652020
>you will literally never appreciate Chinese poetry

>>18652020
No. If that were true they'd just put it through Google translate. There would be no discussion around who's translation was best. There would be no point in people making new translations.

just don't bother with translated poetry. translated novels and stories can be pretty much the same as the originals if they aren't written in some idiosyncratic style with lots of wordplay or whatever.

>>18652378
>tfw all chinese literature is inherently poetic so nothing reads well translated

>>18652378
do you think that alexander popes translations of the Iliad and the odyssey have no artistic merit? what about henry wadworth longfellows translation of the divine comedy?

>>18652283
and look where it brought us

The only things in literature that matter are characters, plot, and setting. "Prose" and the like are meaningless.

>>18653176
A good prose is the literary equivalent to good acting, art style and or animation.