[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature

View post   
File: 555 KB, 865x1600, Céline156484354.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
9868696 No.9868696 [Reply] [Original]

>The worst part is wondering how you'll find the strength tomorrow to go on doing what you did today and have been doing for much too long, where you'll find the strength for all that stupid running around, those projects that come to nothing, those attempts to escape from crushing necessity, which always founder and serve only to convince you one more time that destiny is implacable, that every night will find you down and out, crushed by the dread of more and more sordid and insecure tomorrows.
>And maybe it's treacherous old age coming on, threatening the worst. Not much music left inside us for life to dance to. Our youth has gone to the ends of the earth to die in the silence of the truth. And where, I ask you, can a man escape to, when he hasn't enough madness left inside him? The truth is an endless death agony. The truth is death. You have to choose: death or lies. I've never been able to kill myself.

JUST

>> No.9868818

> le hate everything man

>> No.9868988

>>9868818
But it's wrong, you dunce. Try reading him or something.

>> No.9869006

>>9868818
>hates everything
He's just pointing out the way things are. You chose lies

>> No.9869025

Is Celine worth reading in translation? The quoted passage sounds pretty great, but I've heard from french people that he is untranslatable

>> No.9869073

>>9869025
He is good in translation (it won't get better than what OP posted), and god-tier in French.

In translation, he's losing most of what makes him really superior, but what remains isn't dull or bad either.

You would need huge footnotes to explain the nuances of one word out of three (while any French readers grabs it instinctively), or a genius translator that would rewrite the text freely, to get a more precise feeling of Céline's genius.

>> No.9869269

>>9869025
Yes, it still enjoyable in English, you should check the Manheim translation

>> No.9869338

>>9869025
Don't expect it to live up to the good press he gets in french lit and you won't be upset

>>9869269
>you should check the only translation
Well at least you're not wrong

>> No.9869360

That's a dope coat