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/lit/ - Literature

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12727463 No.12727463 [Reply] [Original]

Bilinguals, do you buy books in your native tongue or in English ? I take it that French has some good translations so I usually buy non-English books in this tongue.

>> No.12727473

>>12727463
just dropping by to say that French has hilariously, absurdly bad translations of Shakespeare

>> No.12727488

>>12727473
That's just part of the grudge we hold against br*ts.

>> No.12727558

>>12727463
Depends, to a large degree on the state of the particular philology and individual translators.
For example, I'd say that English translations of most Greeks and Romans are superior to those from my language, because the latter are very old and based on archaic knowledge and traductological principles, or more modern but sacrificing accuracy too much.
On the other hand, I wouldn't hesitate to pick up a translation of later texts if it was done by a respected, accomplished translator (and/or poet, when it comes to poetry).

>> No.12727563

>>12727463
depends on the book desu

>> No.12727569

I buy whatever the original is in.

If it's not in either, I buy whatever language is closest.

>> No.12727626

>>12727463
I always read everything in english because it's way more fun than my native language.

>> No.12727634

Dual native Spanish/French speaker here, whenever I'm buying translations (Russian, Greek, Latin, etc.) I buy them in French, by far the best school of translators.
I understand some English translations of canonical works are also very good, but not being native holds me back from seeking them out properly.

>> No.12727810

I read German books in German but othereise English. Though German had a lot of good stuff on the classics

>> No.12727840

>>12727463
My mother tongue is spanish, I follow these rules.
Book written in english: I read it in english.
Book written in spanish: I read it in spanish.
Book written in a non romanic language: I read the english translation.
Book written in a romanic language: I read the spanish or english translation. The price usually helps me to decide.

>> No.12728329

>>12727634
Est-ce que tu peux recommander une traduction française de Dostoevsky ou de Tolstoy? Je les ai lus en anglais mais je me demande bien si l'originel sera mieux préservé en français

>> No.12728379

>>12728329
The markowitz traduction are supposedly pretty good but being a jew, he split the book in two parts both of which cost 15.- and all his works are usually pretty expensive.

>> No.12728770

>>12727463
My native tongue is Afrikaans.

There is a very low demand for English to Afrikaans translations since virtually every person that can read Afrikaans can read English.

I don't know what the demand is for Afrikaans to English, but I'd have to guess it is very low. That whole apartheid thing sure did a number on the public perception of Afrikaner culture.

>> No.12728816

I'm macedonian and unless im reading a macedonian/book written by another ex yu slav i always go for english

>> No.12728827

>>12728329
Mongault pour Tolstoi, Guertik pour Dosto

>> No.12728867

>>12727463
French translations are among the worst in the entire world. Not a coincidence that they also translate very little.

Italy has objectively the best Translation School in the world, formed since the humanist age in the 15th century. The Italian versions of Homer are masterworks, for example. Pavese made the best existing translation of Moby Dick, and the Ulysses in Italian (Giulio de Angelis) has been claimed to be even better than the original (that's certainly exaggerated, but the translation is actually god-tier). Italy is also one of the few countries that can boast a decent translation of Finnegans Wake. Landolfi translated Dostoevsky and Montale is considered a master in poetical versions. Pound's Cantos, in addition, were translated by his daughter with the constant supervision of Ezra himself, which makes the Italian version of the Cantos the only authorized and correct one. Something similar happened with Joyce.

Do your math.

>> No.12728957

>>12728816
You are north macedonian faggot

>> No.12729651

>>12727463
I have a strong dislike for Swedish translators so I usually just get the English translation even if it's a bit more expensive.

>> No.12729731

>>12727463
Whose diary?
Did he follow up or "succeeded" ?

>> No.12729740

>>12728816
Any slav language would better translate into Macedonian than English though. Particularly Russian.
t. visited Macedonia last summer and had some local telling me in Macedonian for half an hour about how Putin is the saviour of slavs

>> No.12729744

>>12729651
Why? We have some fantastic translators, especially of classics like Dosto, Tolstoy, and even Homeros.

>> No.12729758

>>12727463
I usually buy in my native tongue unless it's a book that's known for his good usage of language, like Moby Dick, or a book of poetry, in which case I always buy in the original or I buy a bilingual edition. I also like buying books in english because that's a good excuse to buy a Norton Critical edition, which I love and collect (although the quality of the essays you find in them varies greatly, for example there was this essay by Paglia in the Norton Critical ed. of Moby Dick that made me cringe pretty hard).
>>12728867
Pavese's translation is known to have a few blunders, but I agree that the revised version published by Adelphi is very good.

>> No.12729772

English if the book is written in English, otherwise a Swedish translation if I can find one.

>> No.12729783

>>12729740
Why do they think that? Mafia oligarch who hates the people but loves power. Poland was doing fine after joining the EU but then they went full Putin and ostracised the entire nation. Etc.

>> No.12729787

Something wonderful happens to Spanish when it is translated to English, I prefer reading the Latin authors in English.

>> No.12729795

>>12727463
english translations are atrocious

>> No.12729799

>>12729795
Based butterfly

>>12729787
Cringe anonymous

>> No.12729800

>>12729783
Salty about that bombings thing, probably. That was in the orthodox part of Macedonia, so there's also that. Maybe the guy was actually a Serb.

>> No.12729820

>>12727569
/thread

>> No.12729901

>>12728379
Thanks so much I'll have to check him out

>> No.12729904

>>12728827
Merci ça m'aide beaucoup

>> No.12730009

Always in my native language, if I read in other languages and I don't know a word I usually give up so I decided to stick to one language and reach maximum proficiency with it.
And its not silly English

>> No.12730015

Lmao imagine being a non-Anglo subhuman.

>> No.12730029

why would you assume the bilinguals here even speak english?

>> No.12730034

>>12727463
I usually try to buy books in whatever language they were originally written in unless it's something impossible to learn lol

>> No.12730042

LMAOAOA imagine having a language that is evolving on par
with internet culture
@12730015

>> No.12730043

>>12730009
Unironically based.

>> No.12730446

>>12728816
That's great because the translations to Macedonian are usually shitty, but there's no chance you'll be reading something more intricate like Hegel in non-mother tongue.
>t. Macedonian

>> No.12731965

>>12728957
seething gr*ek
>>12729740
I mostly read western literature,though our russian translations are good since most people that grew up in yugoslavia learned russian as a second language(my mom is one of them)
I'm not sure why anyone here would love Putin tho,his goons were caught and admitted to meddling in our last election(which they lost)I honestly cannot wait for Putin to fuck off already
>>12730446
Not really a problem since i've been living online since i was like 7 and i know english better than macedonian(and use it more probably).I'm not really big into philosophy but i had no issue reading Nietzche in english.

>> No.12731985

>>12728770
Learn dutch if you want to be a translator lad, it will come very easily

>> No.12731992

>>12727473
Thinking of Pierre-Jean Jouve's translation ?

>> No.12732035

>>12727569
Basically this

French/English bilingual here; for example, I'll read French translations for Italian and English translations for German. For languages like Japanese that aren't particularly close to either language I'll pick whatever's available or whichever language I've been reading less lately, I guess.

Reading English translations when there are translations to your (non-English) native language available is the height of linguistic and cultural cuckery, by the way

>> No.12732131

>>12731965
I've also been living online since 7, but online you won't usually come across some advanced vocabulary. I've tried reading Nietzsche, it's borderline case. But something more complex would be a nightmare. I study Macedonian so I'm more focused on reading in that language.

>> No.12732190

>>12727463
Native (Dutch) by a mile. The whole point of getting a translation is having someone else do the translating work for me. Would rather not put myself through that again by buying English. I mostly stick to the languages I know anyway. A translation is a new text compared to the original and as a rule of thumb I think it is safe to assume writers can write better books than translators. (Otherwise translators would be writing their own books.)