!bookworms !classics all the talk today on @kaamrev post about Rangz of Power reminded me what a language nerd Tolkien was, he was particularly fascinated with the Finnish language and mythology which he would use as a base for Quenya.
He went as far as to learn enough finnish to read the darn Kalevala in the original.
Which brings me to translations. Translating is tricky, especially for poetry or books which are famous for their prose because part of their beauty is lost, them there's the issue of "word-by-word" translation or whether to convey the general idea of the text.
What are some books you guys find "untranslatable" so to speak?which translated works you find good and what are some terrible translations you came across?
Shakespeare doesn't translate well in other languages, same with Cervantes and Camões when is translated to English but some annotated translations of Don Quixote do the original justice. I see no point of reading Moby Peepee or Lolita in Portuguese either, lot's of what make those books special will be lost.
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Darn I really wanted to read Don Quixote
Sad to hear it doesn't bode well in translations
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Try Grossman's translation that's the one I found to be the closest, preferably annotated to give some background, even in Spanish the notes help because of the archaisms.
Cervantes is the Spanish equivalent of Shakespeare but even if the prose doesn't translate the storylines and plots are still great on their own. Shakespeare in comparison sucks on it's romance translations.
I kind of feel the same pain with Russian literature though, but there's only so many languages we can learn.
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