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!
Honestly, books in translation are my comfort reads right now, especially Japanese and Korean authors. I’ve actually made it a personal goal to collect as many Japanese books about cats, books and coffee as I can (there’s a surprising large number of them). My favorites have been “The Cat Who Saved Books”, Elena Ferrante’s “Neopolitan” series and “Don Quixote” (which I’m currently reading and is stretching me in a lot of ways).
Yes, the Neapolitan quartet by Elena Ferrante is one of my all time favourites too. I love cats, books and coffee so I'll be getting that one. I would also recommend Carlos Zafon Shadow of the Wind and the subsequent books in the series
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 do seek them out and read books in translation regularly. NYRB is a good publisher for books in translation. I read so many BIT that it's hard to pick one, but if forced to it would have to be Broken April by Ismael Kadare. Pub in 1978, it is a rumination on revenge killings in Albania. Wonderful book, I've re-read many times.
I've read a good amount of classic translated literature (the Russians, French, etc) but have definitely lacked in more contemporary translated works. One of my favorite reads so far this year (Ties by Domenico Starnone, translated from Italian) made me realize I need to seek out more contemporary stuff!
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.
Recently? Reading a couple of early Nabokovs. Read War and Peace a couple of years ago, forget which translation, and Crime and Punishment (Garnett, I think, or was it Magarshack). Borges when the di Giovanni translations were coming from Dutton (and if you dive into Borges, try to find those translations -- di Giovanni worked with Borges on them, and they read better IMHO than the ones done by Hurley for the current Penguin volumes). In the 70s and 80s Avon did mass market paperbacks of a truckload of Latin American fiction -- Amado, Puig, Cortazar, Vargas Llosa, and more -- quite a few translated by Gregory Rabassa, and I need to revisit them. Read Mishima and some Kawabata in the early 80s and ditto on the need to revisit. Along with the Nabokovs, am enjoying a number of Penguin's new translations of Simenon's non-Maigrets ( and will hit the Maigrets soon). If you're into horror fiction, Valancourt Books has been doing titles from a number of European, South American, & Central American horror writers, and they're worth a look.
Thanks for the tips! I bet you’ll enjoy tomorrow’s essay. It’s a rambling exploration of what constitutes good translation—with no satisfying answers but plenty of stuff to argue and laugh about.
I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that the last couple of years have been so difficult that my reading has really fallen off and been largely comfort reading. I keep hoping to remedy that. Anyway, under normal circumstances I enjoy reading a lot of translated literature and had an ongoing project of reading around the world that I would love to get back on track. I enjoy a lot of countries' literatures, I started to write a list but it's easier to say what I don't do so well with. French literature makes me nervous. (My sister convinced me to read Les Miserables one chapter a day for a year and that worked great.) I adore Borges but usually struggle with Latin American literature. I will pick Bruno Schulz for a recommendation. He's fantastic and I do love an Eastern European surrealist!
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.
I read War with the Newts by Katel Capek, which was wonderful and brilliant, but nothing struck me about the translation. I also read The Cave by Jose Saramago, which was intensely beautiful and quite a feat of translation.
The only other Saramago I've read is Blindness, which was the second most harrowing reading experience I've ever had (The Road being the first), but I also own All the Names, which I've bumped up my reading stack.
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.
So far this year, I've read eight. The most memorable are We Do Not Part by Han Kang and Not a River by Selva Almada. I have a coworker who is Korean, who recommended the first, and another who's Latina, and although she didn't recommend the second, I plan to recommend it to her. Reading works in translation widens my understanding of people from those cultures who speak those languages, even if you don't have a friend or coworker who can discuss those works and their authenticity (or lack thereof!) with you. In any case, reading translated works opens up the world just a little bit wider.
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.)
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!
Honestly, books in translation are my comfort reads right now, especially Japanese and Korean authors. I’ve actually made it a personal goal to collect as many Japanese books about cats, books and coffee as I can (there’s a surprising large number of them). My favorites have been “The Cat Who Saved Books”, Elena Ferrante’s “Neopolitan” series and “Don Quixote” (which I’m currently reading and is stretching me in a lot of ways).
Yes, the Neapolitan quartet by Elena Ferrante is one of my all time favourites too. I love cats, books and coffee so I'll be getting that one. I would also recommend Carlos Zafon Shadow of the Wind and the subsequent books in the series
I love Shadow of the Wind! I’m over halfway through it, I’ve found a lot of similar nuances between that and Cervantes's Don Quixote.
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 do seek them out and read books in translation regularly. NYRB is a good publisher for books in translation. I read so many BIT that it's hard to pick one, but if forced to it would have to be Broken April by Ismael Kadare. Pub in 1978, it is a rumination on revenge killings in Albania. Wonderful book, I've re-read many times.
I’ll have to check that one out. Thanks! NYRB is fantastic for translations, as is New Directions.
Kadare is underappreciated IMO. I think you'll enjoy the novel.
I've read a good amount of classic translated literature (the Russians, French, etc) but have definitely lacked in more contemporary translated works. One of my favorite reads so far this year (Ties by Domenico Starnone, translated from Italian) made me realize I need to seek out more contemporary stuff!
There is so much truly great stuff out there.
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.
I was already in transition to becoming Catholic. Septology by Jon Fosse sealed the deal.
I’ve heard amazing things about Fosse but have never ventured in.
Recently? Reading a couple of early Nabokovs. Read War and Peace a couple of years ago, forget which translation, and Crime and Punishment (Garnett, I think, or was it Magarshack). Borges when the di Giovanni translations were coming from Dutton (and if you dive into Borges, try to find those translations -- di Giovanni worked with Borges on them, and they read better IMHO than the ones done by Hurley for the current Penguin volumes). In the 70s and 80s Avon did mass market paperbacks of a truckload of Latin American fiction -- Amado, Puig, Cortazar, Vargas Llosa, and more -- quite a few translated by Gregory Rabassa, and I need to revisit them. Read Mishima and some Kawabata in the early 80s and ditto on the need to revisit. Along with the Nabokovs, am enjoying a number of Penguin's new translations of Simenon's non-Maigrets ( and will hit the Maigrets soon). If you're into horror fiction, Valancourt Books has been doing titles from a number of European, South American, & Central American horror writers, and they're worth a look.
Thanks for the tips! I bet you’ll enjoy tomorrow’s essay. It’s a rambling exploration of what constitutes good translation—with no satisfying answers but plenty of stuff to argue and laugh about.
I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that the last couple of years have been so difficult that my reading has really fallen off and been largely comfort reading. I keep hoping to remedy that. Anyway, under normal circumstances I enjoy reading a lot of translated literature and had an ongoing project of reading around the world that I would love to get back on track. I enjoy a lot of countries' literatures, I started to write a list but it's easier to say what I don't do so well with. French literature makes me nervous. (My sister convinced me to read Les Miserables one chapter a day for a year and that worked great.) I adore Borges but usually struggle with Latin American literature. I will pick Bruno Schulz for a recommendation. He's fantastic and I do love an Eastern European surrealist!
I know nothing of Bruno Schulz! Thanks for mentioning him!
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).
I read War with the Newts by Katel Capek, which was wonderful and brilliant, but nothing struck me about the translation. I also read The Cave by Jose Saramago, which was intensely beautiful and quite a feat of translation.
Both sound great. Saramago has been on my TBR for a while.
The only other Saramago I've read is Blindness, which was the second most harrowing reading experience I've ever had (The Road being the first), but I also own All the Names, which I've bumped up my reading stack.
Raising Hare
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.
So far this year, I've read eight. The most memorable are We Do Not Part by Han Kang and Not a River by Selva Almada. I have a coworker who is Korean, who recommended the first, and another who's Latina, and although she didn't recommend the second, I plan to recommend it to her. Reading works in translation widens my understanding of people from those cultures who speak those languages, even if you don't have a friend or coworker who can discuss those works and their authenticity (or lack thereof!) with you. In any case, reading translated works opens up the world just a little bit wider.
Amen. I think that’s one of the great things about translations. It’s a lens on the world we’d otherwise never have.
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.
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.