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/lit/ - Literature

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10679407 No.10679407 [Reply] [Original]

Is it OK to read a don quixote translation?
Should I learn spanish to read in 17th century spanish?

>> No.10679416

>>10679407
The value of quixote is not in the untranslatable aspects.

>> No.10679436

>>10679416
What language should I learn then, for the value in untranslatable aspects? German? French? Latin? Greek? Russian? I don't mind whether these languages strengths differ between philosophy, novels or poetry

>> No.10679663

Tobias Smollett.

>> No.10679676

>>10679436
Learn whatever language you want to, if you're just doing it to read some gay shit because some fags on a Mongolian waterboarding forum will make fun of you it's worthless, do it because you have a genuine interest

>> No.10679687

>>10679436
>The value of quixote is not in the untranslatable aspects.
>What language should I learn then, for the value in untranslatable aspects?
>THE VALUE IS NOT IN THE UNTRANSLATEABLE ASPECTS

>> No.10679814
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10679814

>spend several years and thousands of hours to learn a language just to read a couple of novels in their original language

>> No.10679833

>>10679436
I personally got the most out of French, followed by German and finally Russian. I didn't use to read English translations though,
but usually Finnish or Swedish ones. Latin and (ancient) Greek are dead, so the avaible texts are limited. My Latin is limited to medical stuff, so I can only speak for Greek, but I find it kind of futile, because you will never really know the full meaning of the words. At best we can guess and try to reconstruct the ideas.

>> No.10679885

>>10679814
I mean its Spanish, its not like you won't find other uses for it

>> No.10679932

>>10679407
Read it in your native tongue. I'm fluent in Spanish and feel like I would still get more out of the text reading a translation than reading the original.

>> No.10680099

The text is pretty long and had a lot of parts with antiquated languages in them. I suggest you read a translated first and if you absolutely loved it, you can invest the time to read it in its original language.

>> No.10680122

It is always good to learn another language, but as another anon said in this thread, the core of the great literary works are inherently valuable for people from all cultures independently of the language

>> No.10681369

I was just looking into this myself, and I came across this blog post comparing many of the different English language translations: https://franklycurious.com/wp/don-quixote-english/
He has a number of other interesting posts about the topic from a non-academic perspective.

Obviously there are a lot of different translations and the one you'll pick depends largely on your personal style and why you're reading the it in the first place. I'm reading for pleasure and I was really looking for a book to fall in love with. Something that preserved the humor and playfulness I had heard so much about. Based on these criteria I chose the Rutherford version, but I'm still waiting for it to be delivered so I can't tell you more about the experience of reading it.

>> No.10681386

>>10679885
Yeah, and Spanish shouldn't take that long to learn anyway. Plus I don't think the language in Don Quixote is especially archaic or difficult for Spanish speakers. That said I agree with >>10679416

>> No.10682204

>>10679416
>>10679436
>>10679687
KEK

>> No.10683323

>>10681369
Thanks for this, anon.