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/lit/ - Literature

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23238384 No.23238384 [Reply] [Original]

Sometimes I get depressed whenever I think about how translations are basically fanfictions.
I'll basically never be able to appreciate shit like picrel fully since I'm not chinese, don't know the culture, nor the language.
Hell, even the WN translations you see are stilted as fuck in english,shit like Cixin Liu's stuff has godawful dry af prose, but it must be good to chinks since they love the shit

>> No.23238398
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23238398

>>23238384

>> No.23238401

>>23238384
Instead of being "depressed" you could spend that energy learning the language if you truly care about it. But you don't

>> No.23238404

>>23238384
>af
Dumbshit zoomers keep making the most retarded threads.

>> No.23238417

Fuck I forgot which book it was but I've been learning French and I remember there was a book I read which had a woman who was kind of secondary to the plot and the English translator decided to put in a few sentences explaining how she felt as a woman in the situation she found herself in despite that not appearing in the French original at all
I always thought translations would try to keep the original meaning in the text but just express it in their own way but sometimes the fundamental relationships change in translation
For example one character treats another with respect and wants their opinion but in the English translation they don't care about the other characters opinion and it was just small talk
In one situation a compromise was seen as extremely difficult to agree on but in the English translation the compromise was categorically rejected
Anyway I still think learning languages for literature is slightly insane even though I do it
Translations are fine

>> No.23238421

>>23238417
Actually I remember the book and I was wrong
She was central to the plot but still, they inserted that stuff unnecessarily
Put it in a footnote if you think English readers wouldn't understand that the position of women in Medieval Europe isn't exactly great, don't add it as if it were the author's own voice

>> No.23238422

Who fucking cares? Foreign languages are overrated. Being in English improves them

>> No.23238430

>>23238384
I don't think translations are always bad even if nuances sometimes gets lost in translation
>>23238422
You're retarded

>> No.23238433

>>23238422
>OP said something retarded? Hold my beer!

>> No.23238509

>>23238401
I'm spending all of my energy learning japanese and french, I can't imagine a third

>> No.23238514

Does anyone have that picture of that comment where the guy's saying how he's read hundreds of books in the original language to appreciate it, without knowing the languages?

>> No.23238537

>>23238384
You give modern chinese too much credit. The country has turned into cultural cesspit after the cultural revolution. Now any art that comes from China is tainted by greed or the hand of the CCP.

>> No.23238547

>>23238537
red chamber is from the 1700s
youre right about modern shit being bad though, their YA isn't even worth talking about or lambasting and everything else is a poor imitation of Jin Yong wuxia shit and aping off of classics

>> No.23238551
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23238551

talking about translations, I've just finished Vathek, which, according to Borges, the English translation is better than the French original.

I don't french anyway to compare, but it was such a good read.

>> No.23238552

>>23238547
I wasn't talking about the book. I meant the mainland chinese people. Most of the decent stuff came from hong kong.

>> No.23240081

>>23238551
Borges is a retard, he also said Don Quixote is better in English than in Spanish...

>> No.23240101

>>23240081
Half the shit Borges said are jokes and people take it seriously lol in another interview he earnestly said he couldn't imagine DQ in other language but Spanish.

>> No.23241233

>>23238384
The bible has been translated and retranslated and that was retranslated and then jews censored some parts for thousands of years and english speaking christians dont bitch about that

>> No.23241529

>>23238509
work smarter not harder

>> No.23241622

>>23238384
In all fairness most chinese will never truly appreciate that stuff either, classical chinese is like latin to you or me
>Hell, even the WN translations you see are stilted as fuck in english
Honestly I think a lot of that is just stilted garbage in the first place, although the translation probably doesn't help much.
>Chinese people like them so they must be good
Plenty of Americans love marvel movies and Brandon Sanderson too. It's just low effort slop pumped out to satisfy the lowest common denominator

>> No.23241630

>>23241622
Nvm to my first part I just realized red chamber is from the 18th century lmao. Dunno why I thought it was ancient

>> No.23241972

>>23238509
>japanese
NGMI. chinese is the root of all east asian languages

>> No.23241977

>>23238552
hong kong is true chinese culture just like cantonese is the true language. old chinese poetry makes more sense read in cantonese than mandarin

>> No.23241983
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23241983

Just read Umineko instead

>> No.23242405

>>23238384
No translation can fully capture everything about the original, but that doesn't mean it's basically fanfiction.

>> No.23242410

>>23241622
Dream of the Red Chamber is not in Classical Chinese.

>> No.23242418

>>23241972
No it's not. Japanese borrows a lot of words from Chinese, but that's not the same as being descended from it.

>> No.23242420

>>23241972
>>23242418
Not to mention that even if that were true, Mandarin is just another descendant of Old Chinese.