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/lit/ - Literature

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13315654 No.13315654 [Reply] [Original]

>There are dozens of brilliant books that you will never get to read because you don't understand the language and the translation doesn't do it justice
It hurts, lads.

>> No.13315666

>>13315654
>our civilization will be destroyed soon by massive comet fragments and 100% of its literature will be lost to our descendants
ffs lads

>> No.13315670

>>13315654
>not being at least bilingual
Let me guess, you're an Angloid?

>> No.13315671

You do know that English was Pessoa's first language? He grew up in South Africa and went to English schools

>> No.13315684

>>13315671
Most of his poems are Portuguese, though.

>> No.13316055

>>13315654
There are only four languages which you need to know to get access to any good piece of literature.
English, French, German and Russian.
If you're interested in obscurebut still somewhat good stuff, adding Italian, Polish and Dutch suffices completely.

>> No.13316141

>>13316055
OP's picture proves you wrong. And how the fuck would you know, anyways?

>> No.13316156
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13316156

>>13316055
>An Angloid, who can barely understand French and Spanish, thinks his people can tackle German and Russian

>> No.13316178

>>13315654
>suffering from FOMO
more like suffering from HOMO hahah

>> No.13316184
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13316184

>>13316178
>more like suffering from HOMO hahah

>> No.13316511

>>13315671
>First language
looooooooooooool

>> No.13316525

>>13316055
>adds German and Russian
>Not Spanish and Italian

Dumb burger.

>> No.13316553

>>13316525
>falls for the muh spanish meme
There is nothing of value in Spanish and most notable Italian authors have already been dead for over 300 years.

>> No.13316561
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13316561

>>13315670
>if you're bilingual there aren't dozens of brilliant books that you will never get to read because you don't understand the language and the translation doesn't do it justice

>> No.13316635

>>13316055
What's good Polish and Dutch literature?

>> No.13316654

>>13315654
What are the best languages to learn for /lit/, lads?

>> No.13316669

>>13316635
Depends on your interests. I'm primarily interested in philosophy and related topics.
Some notable authors are Mickiewicz, Karpinski, Wyspianski. Poets/writers whose works I read.
When it comes to philosophy there is a seizable number of people to choose from. Some are.
Ossowska (ethics and sociology), Tatarkiewicz (philosophy), Tarski (philosophy, logics and mathematics), Bochenski, Lukasiewicz.

>> No.13316670

>>13315654
https://www.duolingo.com/ there is hope

>> No.13316996

>>13316055
>Not learning Sanskrit

>> No.13317151
File: 52 KB, 320x176, 1558544199949.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
13317151

>>13316553
>Borges
>Cortázar
>Vargas Llosa
>Neruda
>Juan Rulfo
>García Márquez
>Gabriela Mistral
>Horacio Quiroga
>Quevedo
>Góngora
>Lope de Vega
>Calderón de la Barca
>Cervantes
>Onetti
>Octavio Paz
>Sábato
Anta baka?

>> No.13317163

>>13316561
>look at muh straw man! xDD
There's more books you can enjoy while being AT LEAST bilingual, that's what I said, retarded angloid.

>> No.13317224

>>13315666
Don't worry! The great bird will still be there, brooding over man. This will be only the fourth occurrence, 3 others have come to pass.

>> No.13317225

Translations were the primary way people read books for hundreds of years. Polyglotism is a modern meme

>> No.13317241

>>13316561
Please answer the question

>> No.13317255

>>13315654
If an idea requires the beauty of a language to have an impact on you, then perhaps that idea isn’t that powerful in itself. Truth does not depend on translation.

>> No.13317314

I can really only see this applying to poetry, and even then a good translator can be very effective.

Anything worthwhile reading has been translated into English. If you really want to do a deep dive into a particular culture's writings then just start learning the language.

>> No.13317365

>>13317225
>Polyglotism is a modern meme
u fokin wot cunt?
until 100 years ago, all learned men were expected to study Latin and Greek at the minimum, with many more also learning French or German (depending on where they lived).
Monolingualism is a modern meme, especially among those who are well-educated

>> No.13317379

>>13317365
Looks like we stopped wasting our time learning useless information.

>> No.13317418

>>13317379
This is your mind on Americanism
Not even once.

>> No.13317596

>>13317314
Translations are shit. If you only knew.

>> No.13317980

>>13316141
Absolutely this

>> No.13317986

>>13317224
>The great bird
?

>> No.13318006
File: 45 KB, 500x664, Yvette Mimieux 1962.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
13318006

>>13315654
just learn the language, like any decent grad student.
probably should start with French and German...

>> No.13318031

>>13317151
>spic
>anime pic

>> No.13318214

>>13317151
Based

>> No.13318672

>I'd rather read nothing than a not 100% accurate translation.
Absolute brainlet take.
Kant for example is actually easier to read in English than in German because his sentence structure is an absolute mess.

>> No.13318684

>>13316635

Dutch: Montyn, covers the story of a young lad fleeing is tiny repressive village and joining the SS. Fought eastern front, then Korea, then Indonesia. Ends up a colonel, throws massive sex parties with dutch elites in castles and rapes young cadets.
Its all true btw.

Skip the rest, literally everything else is jewish bs or semi-well written erotica.

>> No.13318703

>>13316055
Not even adding Arabic
Truly pseud anglo tier

>> No.13318720

>>13316055
Add in ancient Greek and Latin and you are set. Optional are Chinese, farsi and sanskrit.

>> No.13318797

>>13316635
Ever heard of a famous Dutch author? Thats right. There are none.

>> No.13319576

>>13318672
It's just so much inferior, in general. It's a farce of how good the thing is. There may be exceptions, but if you don't know the language, you aren't qualified to tell which exceptions exist anyways.

>> No.13319588

>>13315654
That's why you should switch to cinema. Significantly less is lost.

>> No.13320756
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13320756

>>13315654
theres no reason to get caught up worrying about translations, if you do, you will miss out on some great stories. I suppose poetry wont hit quite the same in a different language, but do you really care that much about poetry? if its not in your native language maybe its not really for you anyway. But any famous book from another country will have a perfectly fine translation and your just missing out if you dont read it. People on this board who say you need to learn portuguese to read pessoa or russian to read Dostoevsky are high school brainlets who barely speak english but they are in their second semester of latin and think they will be able to read the Aeneid by the end. fuck them, just read

>> No.13321036

>>13320756
cope

>> No.13321170

>>13321036
not knowing a language is just a cope for being too lazy to read

>> No.13322339

>>13315654
People need to give good translators a lot of credit, it takes work to not only translate but also transmit the spirit of the work into the language (something that is sometimes impossible because, for example, Americans might not be attuned to an Eastern European style of writing/spirit)

>> No.13322395

>>13318797
alex van warmerdam is the only dutch person worth a damn
There's a reason "onnederlands goed" exists