I've read a few different translations of Don Quixote, and my favorite is Edith Grossman's translations. Even though many don't see it as academic enough, I find her translation easy to read and makes Cervantes' prose accessible to laypeople.
Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf -- when it came out I memorized large swaths, though now don't really remember any of it. But very beautiful. I also really love Richard Wilbur's translation of the plays by Moliére. They are in rhyming couplets, which is very difficult to do and still feel fresh and funny in English, which treats that scheme as sing-song-y, but he does it. Tartuff is my favorite, but Misanthrope is great, too.
Excellent. Thanks for the tip! I’ve enjoyed New Directions and NYRB’s catalogs in part because of their translations. I’ll have to add this to the shopping list.
I went through a period in my youth, where I avoided most translations, because I wanted to learn to read books in their original languages - there was one important exception to this rule. But the only language I've managed to develop significant reading ability in was French - I can read Jules Verne fairly well but slowly, while Victor Hugo is barely within my grasp. So I have reluctantly resumed reading translations.
I have read two translations this year, 'Don Quixote' (Edith Grossman's translation) and an old but adequate translation of 'The Betrothed'. I enjoyed both reads, but my brain found 'The Betrothed's narrative structure more congenial to its reading habits than 'Don Quixote's episodic format. I also read Sun Tzu's 'The Art of War', a very brief read that explains the Wuxia film style. I am currently working on other translated works.
I would say the translation that has had the most impact on me are those of the Bible, as the multitude of translations each offer a different aspect to the words. As a general rule, I find translations have less of an impact on me than books in my mother-tongue, because they are translations. Reading them often feels like watching a film originally shot in one language, but dubbed in another. If you watch the film in the original language, you gather far more about the emotions conveyed, even if you don't understand the language and there are no subtitles, than if you listen to the dubbed voices. That is the way I feel about translations.
When I struggle to read Les Miserables in French, I am detecting a rhythm or pattern of thought that no English translation can adequately convey, even if I don't fully understand every word. As much as I appreciated Edith Grossman's accessible Don Quixote, when I read the original - even though my rusty basic conversational Spanish only grasps 10-15% percent of Cervantes' 16th century Spanish - I can sense undercurrents of satire that do not translate. So, we are only reasing part of a translated author's work, not its entirety.
I’ve heard great things about Grossman’s Don Quixote. I’m planning to read it next year. And regarding Bible translations, I’ve really been enjoying the Peshitta New Testament from Gorgias—a translation of a translation.
There are too many classics to name but—just to arbitrarily narrow it down—my favorite 1) recent-ish (i.e. 20th century or later) 2) foreign language 3) novels that 4) I've read recently are:
—Unknown Soldiers, by Väino Linna (Finnish)
—The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea, by Yukio Mishima (Japanese)
—Laurus, by Evgeny Vodolazkin (Russian)
—On the Marble Cliffs, by Ernst Jünger (German)
—The Twilight World, by Werner Herzog (German)
—The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco (Italian)
Those are the ones that immediately come to mind, at least. Liked or loved all of them, admired all of them.
I think you definitely have to read it at exactly the right time. I tried it once years ago and it just didn't take. Tried it again last year and blew through it; a great read.
Most of my German favorites are medieval (e.g. the Nibelungenlied, which I could read over and over) but Jünger is bracing. War memoir, science fiction, political fable, even philosophizing about LSD--he had both astonishing and weird range.
One of the most beautiful books I've ever read is Yoko Ogawa's The Housekeeper and the Professor, translated by Stephen Snyder. It's the story of a math professor who only has eighty minutes of short-term memory, due to a head injury. Every 80 minutes, his life begins anew. However, he still retains all of his mathematical knowledge from before his injury, and he is always making wonderful observations about numbers that appear in the course of living. He develops a very nice relationship with the patient woman who keeps his house and her young son. It's not very long, and I've read it three times.
I adore The Housekeeper and the Professor. I just read it back in April—one of my two that month. Ogawa is a master; something I only know because of Snyder!
I read a couple books in translation every year at least. My favorite books in translation have been Russian. Although, one of my top favorite books is Kristin Lavransdatter, and that is from Norway. My absolute favorite Russian books have been Crime and Punishment, and Anna Karenina. Those two books opened me up to the world of Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy. I also surprisingly, really enjoyed The Tale of Genji. That was an unexpected surprise. I really loved learning the culture of Japan from that time period.
have made a quest of "civilization myths" from various nations: Kalevala, Edda, Mabinogian, Irish tales, Gilgamesh, Song of Hiawatha, Beowulf, Arthurian versions, The Bible (I think that counts).
Another genre of interest are stories about a truly virtuous character: Dostoevsky's The Idiot, Cervantes's Don Quixote, Dickens's Pickwick Papers. (I even tried my hand at writing a short story about one I invented.)
The puzzle of mythology is that the stories were circulated as legends (spoken tales) long before they were petrified as scripts (written tales). What we read or translate is a claimed authoritative version of what once was alive and changing.
I read my first Jo Nesbø this year. Detective novel, translated from the Norwegian. Excellent. Apparently Nesbø is now the best-selling Norwegian author of all time.
I don't seek them out in particular; but I've enjoyed Murakami in translation. Looking forward to Dostoyevsky. But if I had the time and capacity, I'd rather learn the language(s). Book translations are miserable when it comes to quality (because the translators are severely underpaid, or they give the translations to students, inexperienced translators, etc.). For example, translations of Nesbø from Norwegian into English are abysmal. So if you can, it's always better to read the original; and sometimes even better to learn the language haha (there are, of course, exceptions).
I might be forgetting some, but I think _Kitchen_ by Banana Yoshimoto (English translator Megan Backus) is probably my favourite translated book, and was the first to make me aware of the power of the translator. I loved _Kitchen_ (and the accompanying short story 'Moonlight Shadow') so much that I grabbed all the Yoshimoto I could find, but couldn't get into them or didn't like them, which was puzzling and disappointing. Then I saw that the translators were different, and that started me thinking about the translator issue. (Highly recommend John Crowley's _The Translator_, btw.)
I’m currently rereading “Kristin Lavransdatter”. I love Undset’s writing and I’m so thankful to translators that we can access so many great works. I have also enjoyed a couple of different translations of “The Confessions” and “The Divine Comedy “. Dostoevsky, Tolstoy…
I've had a predilection for Russian authors ever since I read Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago many years ago. Cancer Ward was great although the title doesn't inspire the reading of it.
All Quiet on the Western Front by Remarque is an all-time favourite (tr. Brian Murdoch)
The Makioka Sisters by Tanizaki (tr. Edward G. Seidensticker)
Kristin Lavransdatter (tr. Tiina Nunnally)
Anna Karenina (tr. Pevear & Volokhonsky)
Most recent - Alone In Berlin by Hans Fallada (tr. Michael Hofmann)
I've read a few different translations of Don Quixote, and my favorite is Edith Grossman's translations. Even though many don't see it as academic enough, I find her translation easy to read and makes Cervantes' prose accessible to laypeople.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3835.Don_Quixote
I’m planning on reading her translation next year (my year of Big Ass Classics).
Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf -- when it came out I memorized large swaths, though now don't really remember any of it. But very beautiful. I also really love Richard Wilbur's translation of the plays by Moliére. They are in rhyming couplets, which is very difficult to do and still feel fresh and funny in English, which treats that scheme as sing-song-y, but he does it. Tartuff is my favorite, but Misanthrope is great, too.
I’ve got Heaney’s Beowulf but haven’t read it yet!
Check out Deep Vellum publishing. They are based in Dallas and one of the largest translating publishing houses in the world.
https://www.deepvellum.org
Excellent. Thanks for the tip! I’ve enjoyed New Directions and NYRB’s catalogs in part because of their translations. I’ll have to add this to the shopping list.
I went through a period in my youth, where I avoided most translations, because I wanted to learn to read books in their original languages - there was one important exception to this rule. But the only language I've managed to develop significant reading ability in was French - I can read Jules Verne fairly well but slowly, while Victor Hugo is barely within my grasp. So I have reluctantly resumed reading translations.
I have read two translations this year, 'Don Quixote' (Edith Grossman's translation) and an old but adequate translation of 'The Betrothed'. I enjoyed both reads, but my brain found 'The Betrothed's narrative structure more congenial to its reading habits than 'Don Quixote's episodic format. I also read Sun Tzu's 'The Art of War', a very brief read that explains the Wuxia film style. I am currently working on other translated works.
I would say the translation that has had the most impact on me are those of the Bible, as the multitude of translations each offer a different aspect to the words. As a general rule, I find translations have less of an impact on me than books in my mother-tongue, because they are translations. Reading them often feels like watching a film originally shot in one language, but dubbed in another. If you watch the film in the original language, you gather far more about the emotions conveyed, even if you don't understand the language and there are no subtitles, than if you listen to the dubbed voices. That is the way I feel about translations.
When I struggle to read Les Miserables in French, I am detecting a rhythm or pattern of thought that no English translation can adequately convey, even if I don't fully understand every word. As much as I appreciated Edith Grossman's accessible Don Quixote, when I read the original - even though my rusty basic conversational Spanish only grasps 10-15% percent of Cervantes' 16th century Spanish - I can sense undercurrents of satire that do not translate. So, we are only reasing part of a translated author's work, not its entirety.
I’ve heard great things about Grossman’s Don Quixote. I’m planning to read it next year. And regarding Bible translations, I’ve really been enjoying the Peshitta New Testament from Gorgias—a translation of a translation.
There are too many classics to name but—just to arbitrarily narrow it down—my favorite 1) recent-ish (i.e. 20th century or later) 2) foreign language 3) novels that 4) I've read recently are:
—Unknown Soldiers, by Väino Linna (Finnish)
—The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea, by Yukio Mishima (Japanese)
—Laurus, by Evgeny Vodolazkin (Russian)
—On the Marble Cliffs, by Ernst Jünger (German)
—The Twilight World, by Werner Herzog (German)
—The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco (Italian)
Those are the ones that immediately come to mind, at least. Liked or loved all of them, admired all of them.
I’ve never been able to penetrate Name of the Rose. Should probably try again. I’m also under-read in my Germans.
I think you definitely have to read it at exactly the right time. I tried it once years ago and it just didn't take. Tried it again last year and blew through it; a great read.
Most of my German favorites are medieval (e.g. the Nibelungenlied, which I could read over and over) but Jünger is bracing. War memoir, science fiction, political fable, even philosophizing about LSD--he had both astonishing and weird range.
One of the most beautiful books I've ever read is Yoko Ogawa's The Housekeeper and the Professor, translated by Stephen Snyder. It's the story of a math professor who only has eighty minutes of short-term memory, due to a head injury. Every 80 minutes, his life begins anew. However, he still retains all of his mathematical knowledge from before his injury, and he is always making wonderful observations about numbers that appear in the course of living. He develops a very nice relationship with the patient woman who keeps his house and her young son. It's not very long, and I've read it three times.
I adore The Housekeeper and the Professor. I just read it back in April—one of my two that month. Ogawa is a master; something I only know because of Snyder!
I read a couple books in translation every year at least. My favorite books in translation have been Russian. Although, one of my top favorite books is Kristin Lavransdatter, and that is from Norway. My absolute favorite Russian books have been Crime and Punishment, and Anna Karenina. Those two books opened me up to the world of Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy. I also surprisingly, really enjoyed The Tale of Genji. That was an unexpected surprise. I really loved learning the culture of Japan from that time period.
Whose translations of C&P and Anna Karenina did you read? And yes on Kristin Lavransdatter; what a book.
Pavear and Volokhonsky for Crime and Punishment, and I prefer Maude for Tolstoy.
Cool. Thanks!
Kristin Lavransdatter is one of the best novels, nearly forgot about that one!
have made a quest of "civilization myths" from various nations: Kalevala, Edda, Mabinogian, Irish tales, Gilgamesh, Song of Hiawatha, Beowulf, Arthurian versions, The Bible (I think that counts).
Another genre of interest are stories about a truly virtuous character: Dostoevsky's The Idiot, Cervantes's Don Quixote, Dickens's Pickwick Papers. (I even tried my hand at writing a short story about one I invented.)
I love the great myths quest! I’ve read several of those you list but not all.
The puzzle of mythology is that the stories were circulated as legends (spoken tales) long before they were petrified as scripts (written tales). What we read or translate is a claimed authoritative version of what once was alive and changing.
I read my first Jo Nesbø this year. Detective novel, translated from the Norwegian. Excellent. Apparently Nesbø is now the best-selling Norwegian author of all time.
I don't seek them out in particular; but I've enjoyed Murakami in translation. Looking forward to Dostoyevsky. But if I had the time and capacity, I'd rather learn the language(s). Book translations are miserable when it comes to quality (because the translators are severely underpaid, or they give the translations to students, inexperienced translators, etc.). For example, translations of Nesbø from Norwegian into English are abysmal. So if you can, it's always better to read the original; and sometimes even better to learn the language haha (there are, of course, exceptions).
I’ve been thinking about reading Murakami for a while now. There are so many! I can’t decide where to start. What’s your recommendation?
I would start with one of his short story collections, probably Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman – that’s a pretty good introduction into his writing.
Also loved Septology
I love Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Solzhenitsyn.
I might be forgetting some, but I think _Kitchen_ by Banana Yoshimoto (English translator Megan Backus) is probably my favourite translated book, and was the first to make me aware of the power of the translator. I loved _Kitchen_ (and the accompanying short story 'Moonlight Shadow') so much that I grabbed all the Yoshimoto I could find, but couldn't get into them or didn't like them, which was puzzling and disappointing. Then I saw that the translators were different, and that started me thinking about the translator issue. (Highly recommend John Crowley's _The Translator_, btw.)
Fascinating experience—probably one that will stick with you.
Kristin Lavransdatter, Cornelia Funke’s Inkheart YA series, Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot.
Same re Lavransdatter. Excellent.
I want to like Dostoevsky. So far I’ve failed.
I’m currently rereading “Kristin Lavransdatter”. I love Undset’s writing and I’m so thankful to translators that we can access so many great works. I have also enjoyed a couple of different translations of “The Confessions” and “The Divine Comedy “. Dostoevsky, Tolstoy…
Same re Lavransdatter. So good.
I've had a predilection for Russian authors ever since I read Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago many years ago. Cancer Ward was great although the title doesn't inspire the reading of it.
All Quiet on the Western Front by Remarque is an all-time favourite (tr. Brian Murdoch)
The Makioka Sisters by Tanizaki (tr. Edward G. Seidensticker)
Kristin Lavransdatter (tr. Tiina Nunnally)
Anna Karenina (tr. Pevear & Volokhonsky)
Most recent - Alone In Berlin by Hans Fallada (tr. Michael Hofmann)
I love Nunnally’s Lavransdatter! What a read.