Reading Classic Literature

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by seanyyz

I read classic literature occasionally but I am thinking of starting devoting a lot of my reading time on classics.

I'm currently reading Huckleberry Finn in preparation for reading James by Percival Everett.

The version available here at MobileRead by GrannyGrump is excellent.

[Renate]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I'm currently reading Huckleberry Finn in preparation for reading James by Percival Everett.

The version available here at MobileRead by GrannyGrump is excellent.

Huck may be one of those books that we all think that we have read and haven't.

Talk of translations: I just looked at https://welovetranslations.com/2022/...and-margarita/
"The Master and Margarita" is one of my favorite books. The comparison still left my head spinning.

Translation is such a quagmire.
I sometimes wonder if it's better to read language X in my non-native language Y or in English.
Is the similarity of X and Y sufficient to overcome the fact that Y is not native to me?
Or should I do it just for practice?

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I'm currently reading Huckleberry Finn in preparation for reading James by Percival Everett.

The version available here at MobileRead by GrannyGrump is excellent.

I have two translations of this novel.

One is an older translation, and the other one is translated by the famous team of Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. I have yet to read this newer translation. I enjoy comparing sections of different versions - especially Proust.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

I have two translations of this novel.

One is an older translation, and the other one is translated by the famous team of Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. I have yet to read this newer translation. I enjoy comparing sections of different versions - especially Proust.

I've always read Huckleberry Finn in its original language and did the same for James, but kudos to you.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by issybird

I've always read Huckleberry Finn in its original language and did the same for James, but kudos to you.

Thank you, but I might not have been clear on what book I was actually referring to: The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov.

Concerning my reference to Proust, I own in ebook (and paper editions, currently in storage), numerous translations in English. I find it fascinating in comparing the syntactical differences between these editions, along with acquainting myself with what influence and background a translator might have had.

The same is true of Cervantes.

It's especially exciting to look at an author whose work I find very rewarding right now, such as Stefan Zweig, probably due to my infatuation with Modernist fiction.

[rkomar]

And yet they say that publishers are replacing translators with AI to save money and time. A good translation takes much skill and artistry, so I despair about this trend.

[BionicGecko]

Originally Posted by Renate

Translation is such a quagmire.
I sometimes wonder if it's better to read language X in my non-native language Y or in English.
Is the similarity of X and Y sufficient to overcome the fact that Y is not native to me?
Or should I do it just for practice?

Originally Posted by rkomar

And yet they say that publishers are replacing translators with AI to save money and time. A good translation takes much skill and artistry, so I despair about this trend.

As a native French speaker who’s also relatively comfortable with English, my rule of thumb has always been to read foreign books (i.e. whose primary language is neither French nor English) in French, and English language authors in English. For the odd cases where I can’t find a French translation of a foreign book, but where an English translation exists, I’ll fall back to English.

I guess my main reason for sticking to French for non-English books is that I read much faster in French, and well at the end of the day it’s my mother tongue, it will always be more comfortable.

Also a quite interesting fact is that each language has their translation culture of sorts; French translators for instance tend to focus more on the fluidity of the text, making sure that the text reads as if it were written by a Frenchman, using French sentence structures and expressions. German translators tend to stick more closely to the original text, which can result in a translation that feels more contrived but perhaps retains a bit more of the essence of the original text.

All in all translation truly is a fascinating and important aspect of literature. I really hope translations don’t end up being completely outsourced to AI in the future!

[Renate]

An interesting example in "The Master and Margarita" in which I read a half dozen translation of the opening chunk.

Somebody ordered from a kiosk a "Narzan", which I just learned is a well-known carbonated mineral water that is still bottled today.

One translation renders it as, "Give me a Narzan" which is probably what anyone would have said.

Another says "Narzan water" which can be excused as a bit of amplification for foreign readers.

Another renders it as "lemonade" which I find problematic. In some cultures "lemonade" means anything fizzy while in others it means non-sparkling (natural) lemon drink.