/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.15507280]

this is the real deal. i'm sorry you gringos had to wait a fucking century for a decent enough translation, but here it is.

there's nothing like it.

[Anonymous No.15507293]

>>15507280
wdum theres been translations out for ages. Anyways it is my favourite book that I've ever read so you're not wrong there.

[Anonymous No.15507322]

>>15507293

bro, i mean a decent translation, extensive notes and preservation of the original ambiguity throughout the text

the 50s version put together by an evangelical translator rendered the part about quincas borba proving the gospels wrong as "he made good arguments". lmao

[Anonymous No.15507324]

>>15507280

How similar is Portuguese to Spanish? Will familiarity with the latter make the former a walk in the park?

[Anonymous No.15507335]

>>15507324
portuguese can be easily read and understood if you speak spanish, its practically a dialect TBQHFAM

[Anonymous No.15507338]

>>15507280
Doesn't gringo mean foreigner?

[Anonymous No.15507390]

>>15507324

op here. it certainly helps to a great extent but you gotta remember this is 19th century portuguese and machado packs a punch in every other sentence, there are layers of interpretation (and mockery) and i'd guess it would be a bit of a challenge tackling it with a decent spanish alone.

i'd give this english version a shot

[Anonymous No.15507420]

>>15507280
looks interesting anon. never heard of it before. added it to my wishlist.

[Anonymous No.15507435]

>>15507280
can you post excerpts and compare them to the next best

[Anonymous No.15507446]

>>15507322
>quincas borba proving the gospels wrong as "he made good arguments". lmao
He never "proved the gospels wrong"; he co-opted some of Jesus' teaching for his own philosophical system that drove him insane and also helped ruin the life of Brás Cubas. His character is a satire of New Age charlatans. I can't tell if you're just illiterate, or just being purposefully obscure, but come on. And I'm not sure which translation you're referring to, but the one with the skull on the cover is pretty faithful to the original and doesn't skip over any of Borba's autism.

[Anonymous No.15507468]

>>15507280
I got the huge complete edition, and while initially I was super impressed, after about 40 stories i realized just how formulaic and reliant on one trick (that of the melancholy upper class individual leading themselves on a road to perdition, with various road bumps of magical realism, inheritances, and infidelity along the way, and the inevitable last page twist) that I had to put it down as it became tedious.

[Anonymous No.15507602]

>>15507280
>there's nothing like it.
What makes it so great?

[Anonymous No.15507699]

>>15507335
Same with Italian.

[Anonymous No.15507739]

>>15507280
is this a decent translation?

[Anonymous No.15507830]

>>15507739

FSG's editions have been well received, both Brás Cubas and Dom Casmurro. Not as complete and as contextualized but I believe they are solid picks.

[Anonymous No.15507982]

>>15507468
I feel like you could say this about most authors collected short stories tho, reading them in succession makes the overlap patterns seem more obvious too. I actually love when it becomes tedious, if you like to write this really helps you understand narrative structures.

[Anonymous No.15507983]

I have the '97 Oxford translation by someone named Gregory Rabassa, is it shit?

[Anonymous No.15508310]

>>15507338
gringo is anyone who's not brazilian

[Anonymous No.15508333]

>>15508310
>>15507338
Yeah, "foreigner", but it's used almost exclusively for North Americans.

[Anonymous No.15508398]

>>15508333
>but it's used almost exclusively for North Americans
not here in Brazil