Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 12
Results 16 to 19 of 19

Thread: Dual Language Books/ Discussion on reading in translation

  1. #16
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Sep 2011
    Posts
    3,890
    Quote Originally Posted by quidoftullamore View Post
    Aura by Carlos Fuentes has an English/Spanish bilingual edition.
    An interesting book coming from Fuentes. It might be one of its kind in his repertoire, at least in length. Two people in need elaborate a successful fantasy. Fuentes is well-known for being a very critical writer.

  2. #17
    Procrastinator General *Classic*Charm*'s Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Leaning on this broken fence, between Past and Present tense
    Posts
    4,908
    Blog Entries
    18
    Quote Originally Posted by lichtrausch View Post
    Are you sure it wasn't the Old English original on the facing page?
    Oh! You're right! I looked it up haha- it was a few years ago now that I read it.
    I'm weary with right-angles, abbreviated daylight,
    Waiting for a winter to be done.
    Why do I still see you in every mirrored window,
    In all that I could never overcome?

  3. #18
    Registered User Tomwk's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2013
    Posts
    4
    Just like all of you have been mentioning, poetry is the usual genre for bilingual editions, mostly because editors and translators realise how much cannot be truly rendered from a language to another. The endless lyrical resources that make poetry be poetry practically disappear from a language to the other, unless a certain work bumps into a very artful translator who can come up with effective ways of making the new language convey the same or similar aesthetic bliss as the original one.

    This last thing sounds brilliant in theory, but unfortunately, it often ends up in actual verbal entaglements that give readers in other languages false impressions about certain works. For example, the average reader of the Divine Comedy in Spanish will probably have the idea that Dante's masterpiece is much more inaccessible and unreadable than the average reader of the Commedia in English. This is because almost all translations of it in Spanish attempt to keep the terza rima, causing the tercetos to have the appearance of having been trapped inside a tornado (words are added, removed, mixed up and so simply to keep the form).

    To sum up, all these titanic translation tasks (usually unavailing) can be avoided either by bilingual editions or really good prose ones (that's how I read the Commedia and the Odyssey; accepting of course that something is always lost in translation).

  4. #19
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Oct 2013
    Posts
    1
    I tend to agree with Tomwk. For bilingual/parallel text books I actually prefer current titles vs. classic literature. I discovered book that's written about Spain (and of course bilingual Spanish-English), Los Secretos Mejor Guardados de España/ Spain's Best Kept Secrets. It's great if you're planning a trip to Spain or simply want to daydream about that spectacular country...in English or in Spanish!

Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 12

Similar Threads

  1. Reading in translation
    By nickguyrees in forum Poems, Poets, and Poetry
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 02-20-2012, 07:45 PM
  2. Replies: 24
    Last Post: 05-04-2010, 03:58 PM
  3. What are the Best Books You Have Read in Translation?
    By imatitle in forum General Literature
    Replies: 11
    Last Post: 06-19-2008, 08:58 AM
  4. Recommend any recent good French language books/novels?
    By Cailin in forum General Literature
    Replies: 18
    Last Post: 02-20-2008, 06:26 PM
  5. Dual Life
    By PETERCOE in forum Introductions
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 02-23-2006, 01:29 PM

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •