Oh, you're in Islamabad. Cool. What language did you read it in?Originally Posted by Offeror
Oh, you're in Islamabad. Cool. What language did you read it in?
Last edited by Pompey Bum; 09-15-2016 at 01:39 PM.
Of course in English. By the way I'm not aware of an Urdu translation of War and Peace in case you're wondering something on those lines.
Why of course? I wish I could read it in Russian. Islamabad's closer to Russia than where I am.
It would be a very rare thing to find an Islamabad native who'd know Russian. I'm afraid the language factor is one that we have to deal with too since there is not the remotest link between Islamabad and Moscow other than mere geographic proximity. My elder brother once asked me the use of reading English translations of foreign literature making the point that much of the real thing must be lost in translation. It must be true since there's a world of difference between English and Russian (from what little I know of it). It's not perfect but the writer's idea should be able to cross over safely to the other side.
I used to avoid translations for that very reason. I'm a native English speaker, so their is a wealth of secular literature to draw from. But I regretted the choice as soon as I started reading translations from Russian. I think the trick is to find a translator who is willing to be a partner with the author in getting the meaning across. We accept a similar role for editors, but for some reason it's harder to accept translations.
By the way, I had a good friend who was an Urdu poet many years ago.
If we don't know the language then we're not left with much choice. Also hard to deprive yourself of foreign writers once you get used to their works.
Also as far as poetry is concerned you will find some of the best poetry in Urdu and Punjabi. It never balances as well in English as I've read or heard in Urdu or Punjabi.
Yes, at some point you just have to say this is the best I've got. I usually feel comfortable reading a translation from a European language, but with some others (even though I read them) I know I am losing a lot. In Chinese there can be subtle meanings or funny puns based on similarities of radical marks within the written characters. Forget it! There are just some parts that are going to go over our heads.
My friend used to translate his own Urdu poetry into English, which I guess is one way to get the most from a translation. His pen name was Daud Rahbar. His most famous book of poetry (over here anyway) was called The Cup of Jamshid. He was sort of a mentor to me. Not in a worldly way: he was a very innocent soul, a real poet; but in a spiritual way and as an independent thinker. Anyway, I miss him.
Last edited by Pompey Bum; 09-15-2016 at 02:52 PM.
Hmmm...I guess real poets are like that. Also from that name "Rahbar" means a guide so from what you say he fulfilled his description so to speak.
Yes. His family name was Daud, and he added Rahbar. In a poetic sense, it was a good name for him. I have to go get my wife now, Offeror, and I am in a hurry. But it was very nice to talk with you. I hope to see you here again sometime.
If you are looking for great long novels, put William Gaddis's The Recognitions and Vasily Grossman's Life and Fate on the list — two of the best novels of the 20thc.
I strongly agree about Life and Fate. I've never read The Recollections so I can't comment.
I must agree with regard to the "readability" of War & Peace (as well as its aesthetic merits). I believe I was about 19 or 20 when I read it, and I tore through it in a week or so. Honestly, beyond the length of the novel, I don't understand why having read W & P should be something to brag about. Proust's In Search of Lost Time is far longer... as are the whole of The Lord of the Rings or the Harry Potter Novels. Joyce' Ulysses and certainly Finnegans Wake are far "knottier"... as are many other works. Honestly I found that War & Peace and Les Miserbales made a marvelous pair... offering the contrasting French and Russian views of the Napoleonic Wars.
Beware of the man with just one book. -Ovid
The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them.- Mark Twain
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I noticed the pair as well (I am about 500 pages through War and Peace as of right now). I read that Tolstoy actually visited Hugo and praised him for Les Mis shortly after it came out.
"History is the nightmare from which I am trying to awake"-Stephen Dedalus
I read War and Peace when I was around 21 and it brought a really positive change to my life at a time when I needed it. It's a really beautiful novel and, as others have mentioned, not very difficult to read at all, and well earns its length.
Gravity's Rainbow I have also read, and it took a decent amount of focus (the prose is extremely poetic, reminds me alot of Rilke. The actual diction in the novel isn't tough at all-- you'll rarely consult a dictionary unless it's a word there is absolutely no analogue. He's not out to trick readers.) There's also quite a bit of digression into abstract imagery and very surreal sequences. It's probably my favorite of the books you mentioned and I would definitely go for it after War And Peace. Maybe not back to back, that sounds exhausting. It is one of the most beautiful works of American literature and, in my opinion, literature in general.
I really love Don Delillo's short pieces but Underworld just could not do it for me. I think when I was reading it it seemed "scatterbrained" and cobbled together, although I was talking to an oil man who spent his youth in waste management in New York City and I suddenly realized how intricately woven that novel is, and that it's not scatterbrained or cobbled at all. Still, I never finished it and at the moment I don't really have an interest to.
Infinite Jest is one of the worst novels I've ever tried to read in my life. I don't really get the appeal at all. Most of the people who read it in my hometown are pseuds. The quickest explanation I can give is that it's a terminally didactic and painfully derivative work.
I haven't read the Recognitions. I very much so intend to, but I've been in-between Spain and Morocco the last couple of months, and the damn thing is 5 pounds, so I've been reading The Melancholy of Resistance and a few other little books that won't turn my carry-on luggage into stow away.
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