Do you read books in more than one language?

[Ea]

Originally Posted by Gudy

Well, Romanian *is* a Romance language, meaning that it is closer to French/Italian/Spanish/etc. than it is to the Slavic languages spoken in most of the other countries in the area. So one would speculate that French is simply relatively easy to learn for a Romanian. If there are other historical reasons for that French-Romanian affinity, I'm not aware of them.


As for what I read, it's mostly English with the occasional book in my native German thrown in for good measure. Why? I like English, I prefer reading English speaking authors in their native language, and I aim to improve my command of English as well.

I must admit that it wasn't until a few years ago, looking at a (as it turned out) Romanian web page (with some interesting trick images), that I realised it was a Romance language. It looked so familiar, almost ... Latin? Italian? Almost, but not quite. I blame the iron curtain and growing up in the 80's - Eastern Europe wer a sort of blur i never really learned as much about as Western Europe. I do wonder if Romania, despite the language, is culturally more a slavic country than 'romannic'?

[Gaurnim]

Originally Posted by beachwanderer

The Italians have this nice saying, what was it again ? Ah yes:"Traduttore, Traditore" You inevitably lose so much with every translation ...

I read a very interesting essay by Umberto Eco about his experiences in translating and being translated : "Dire quasi la stessa cosa" (quick translation : to say almost the same thing)
I read it in italian, because reading the translated version of an essay about translation seemed a bit strange.

[beachwanderer]

Originally Posted by Gaurnim

I read a very interesting essay by Umberto Eco about his experiences in translating and being translated : "Dire quasi la stessa cosa" (quick translation : to say almost the same thing)
I read it in italian, because reading the translated version of an essay about translation seemed a bit strange.

Well, well. Is there a translation of this piece somewhere for me ?



Ah, found it. Rather a lengthy "essay" isn't it ? .

There is a german translation of this: "Quasi dasselbe mit anderen Worten: Über das Übersetzen" (Umberto Eco, Übersetzt von Burkhardt Kröber, dtv, 2009, 464 p.)

[FBoespflug]

I read in French, my native language, but most part of time in german, because I love it and more and more in English now, to improve my understanding, for what's written at least. So it's becoming better and better and I like it.
That's why I totally enjoy my ebookreader, there are actually a lot of possibilities to find any interesting ebook in three languages.

[somnolik]

Originally Posted by omk3

I like reading books in the language they were written in, when possible.

+1

Sadly, my limited skillset restricts me to english and german texts.

[mtravellerh]

Originally Posted by beachwanderer

Well, well. Is there a translation of this piece somewhere for me ?



Ah, found it. Rather a lengthy "essay" isn't it ? .

There is a german translation of this: "Quasi dasselbe mit anderen Worten: Über das Übersetzen" (Umberto Eco, Übersetzt von Burkhardt Kröber, dtv, 2009, 464 p.)

Eco has always been a very wordy gentleman!

[Ea]

Originally Posted by mtravellerh

Eco has always been a very wordy gentleman!

You don't say. Oh, my!

I'm actually holding back a little with Eco, because I really don't think it's an improvement if I, as a Dane, read him in an English translation. But I can't read Italian either - and his overall 'wordiness' creates quite heavy books.. So... what to do.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by omk3

I like reading books in the language they were written in, when possible. I have been known to try and learn new languages just because I liked a specific author that writes in that language. That said, I am only really comfortable with greek and english books, but I have read books in german, french and portuguese, and hope to someday be able to read in japanese (in a few hundred years from now or something )

i agree, but sadly i can only read in 2 languages (so far : i have plans to learn several others, but i just need to find the time...) : french and english. so i also try to choose the translation depending on the original language. for example, a book that was written in italian or spanish, i prefer to read in french. a book written in german or danish, i prefer to read translated in english. i think the "tone" of the languages is closer, and i think it makes a really big difference.

maybe i should have chosen "other" because i have several answers (most important : for work, unavailability), but i voted "yes because of unavailability". since i started reading ebooks, i read mostly in english, just because most of the books i want to read are not available in french (or at least, there are a lot more books in english, so far). most of the french authors i like are not so far published in ebooks, at all. and even a lot of foreign authors are easier to find in english than in french. for example Alessandro Baricco is one of my favourite authors, i really want to buy his book "city", but since he is writing in italian i would prefer to read the french translation. but it's not available ; only available in english. i'm still hesitating, even though i really want to read it. i really hope this will change soon. sometimes i get really frustrated. i've read a lot of good ebooks (in english), but i miss reading in french.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Gaurnim

I read a very interesting essay by Umberto Eco about his experiences in translating and being translated : "Dire quasi la stessa cosa" (quick translation : to say almost the same thing)
I read it in italian, because reading the translated version of an essay about translation seemed a bit strange.

that sounds really interesting, i would love to read it. is there a version in french ?

[Moejoe]

I'm bi-lingual when it comes to fiction.

Mainly I read in English, and English translations, but sometimes I read idiot when there's nothing other than Dan Brown or Stephanie Meyers available.

[Ea]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

i agree, but sadly i can only read in 2 languages (so far : i have plans to learn several others, but i just need to find the time...) : french and english. so i also try to choose the translation depending on the original language. for example, a book that was written in italian or spanish, i prefer to read in french. a book written in german or danish, i prefer to read translated in english. i think the "tone" of the languages is closer, and i think it makes a really big difference.

I had not thought about this, but it is very good idea. Unfortunataly the foreign languages I can read books in are English and German (not good enough at French, unfortunately) - but I think it's a very sound idea.

BTW: do you know "Le livre saphir"? Never translated into English I think, but still good fun in danish.

[Gaurnim]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

that sounds really interesting, i would love to read it. is there a version in french ?

Yes, there is.
And the translation should be good, as I suppose he took extra care in translating this work. Plus he is fluent in french as he translated some of Raymond Queneau's work in italian (Exercices de style).

Originally Posted by Ea

You don't say. Oh, my!

I'm actually holding back a little with Eco, because I really don't think it's an improvement if I, as a Dane, read him in an English translation. But I can't read Italian either - and his overall 'wordiness' creates quite heavy books.. So... what to do.

From what I've read in this essay, I would tend to think that the translations of his work are good ones.
I haven't compared the french translations with the italian originals, as I read some of his books in french before I had a sufficient fluency in italian. This essay is his first work I read in italian.
Nothing jumped at me as being badly translated in the french version. Then again, he speaks french so that helps.
I suppose the english translations are been carefully done too, as they have been widely disseminated and he is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

If you can't read italian or french, I think you should go ahead and read his books in english.

[Salgueiros]

I am a Portuguese living in Canada, so besides reading in Portuguese and Spanish (which for a portuguese is really easy to understand, not the other way around, generally), i read a lot of ebooks in English and French.

The reason i read in other languages other than portuguese is mainly the availability of titles. Besides the classics and some smaller independent publishers there are still not a lot of titles available in Portugal. The situation in Brazil, however, is different and i get a lot of books to read in portuguese from brazilian websites, and given its huge market of almost 200 million people, this market is evolving quite rapidly.

[ficbot]

I have been so interested to read the responses. I read in French to improve my language skills, but I don't think I am used to it enough yet that I enjoy it from the standpoint of 'reading in the original form is better than reading a translation.' Take for example something like the Three Musketeers series, which was originally written in French. English versions are widely available and are a good read. I would read it in French just for the sake of it but don't really believe I would enjoy it more...

The one exception so far has been song lyrics. I teach with some Disney songs and a few of them have versions in French that are better than the English ones---and I can see a little more clearly how a translator takes liberties because they often have to change things to keep it rhyming. So as a linguistic exercise, that has been interesting for me---whereas with a novel translation, I feel they would not take such liberties, so reading it in English vs in French, I would have pretty much the same experience...

[Gaurnim]

Originally Posted by ficbot

Take for example something like the Three Musketeers series, which was originally written in French. English versions are widely available and are a good read. I would read it in French just for the sake of it but don't really believe I would enjoy it more...

It takes a good knowledge of the language and culture to really enjoy reading the original version (well, except if the translation is crap).
The most frequent translation errors that I see are linked to expressions or cultural background.

There is a funny example in the Eco essay about a translation of "training courses" from English to French in the context of scientists getting some training to improve their skills. It ended up translated as "courses de train", which means "train races" ...

EDIT : after re-reading myself, it's not a very good example for what I was saying.
Gotta go back to work, no time to find another one

Originally Posted by ficbot

The one exception so far has been song lyrics. I teach with some Disney songs and a few of them have versions in French that are better than the English ones---and I can see a little more clearly how a translator takes liberties because they often have to change things to keep it rhyming.

In the case of song lyrics, I feel it's more in the realm of adaptation than translation because, as you said, there are additional criteria about rhyming and rythm.
You also see this in movies. The subtitles and dubbing often differ a bit as they address different criteria.