!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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If I reread which translation do you recommend? I'd have to even check which copy I have. I'm tilting.
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I read it in Spanish, but I remember there was an English translation some other guy posted here on rdrama which was good.
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Send me the first page of your edition, I'm gonna compare it to the original
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Grossman was the translator
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Ok. Worth mentioning even in Spanish is good to have an annotated edition because 17th century Spanish is a tad different and there are many outdated expressions. A fun fact is that Rio-Platense
Spanish conserves some archaisms from that era like "voseo" which completely disappeared in Spain and countries like Mexico.
"Vos tenés" instead of "tu tienes/usted tiene" which is used in modern Spain.
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