Dual Language Books/ Discussion on reading in translation

Has anyone ever bought any dual language books? I'm learning Spanish so I've got a few books with spanish poetry/ stories on one side and english translations on the other.
They seem to be quite uncommon; I've only recently discovered them. Is anyone here well aquainted with them? :)

It'd be interesting to discuss reading in translation too. So much is lost!
I remember my Spanish teacher telling me something disheartening about people never being able to really understand another culture no matter how many books/ films etc they consume. (Then again, I doubt if anyone can truly 'understand' their own culture.)

Meanwhile, I can't imagine how anyone can properly translate.Chinese poetry into english. The rhythm is usually completely ruined.

Especially poetry books seem to be very often available in the dual language form. I really appreciate this because translating poetry is more an interpretation than a real translation.

I think the only book I have beside poetry which has more languages inside is Beckett's Waiting of Godot. The book includes the English, French an German version (If I'm not mistaken English and French was done by Beckett himself).

A reasonable number of the texts I read in Old Norse and Old English come with a facing page translation - though I suspect this is more typical of dead languages than living ones. I think poetry, more than prose, is more likely to be given a facing translation, if only so the reader can get some sense of the original sound and rhythm.

There are many dual language version of Czesław Miłosz and Wisława Szymborska poems. Mostly it`s polish- english.

There's a bilingual edition of Jorge Luis Borges' Selected Poems. Good stuff.

I have Pessoa in a dual language edition. Many of his major poems are in it. Years since I read it.

Oh I'd love to read the Borges collection.

With poetry I find the syntax is very different from prose. Kowing the literal meaning of words isn't enough.

I have a copy of Rilkes Die Stundenbuch with parallel translation. Unfortunately I cannot put my hand on it nor remember the name of the woman who did the translation. But I do remember I thought it was wonderful when I read it.
I thought of trying to do a parallel translation of some poems by Renee Vivien but eventually decided my French wasn't up to it..

I use dual language books in two situations. When I'm learning a language, or when I'm reading something in a dead language. To me it's not worth it to learn a dead language to the level where I can read stuff without some kind of a crutch. That would require reading dozens and dozens of books in that dead language. But the amount of interesting material in dead languages is quite limited unless you are a huge history buff or what not.

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Originally Posted by Seasider

I have a copy of Rilkes Die Stundenbuch with parallel translation.

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Das Stundenbuch ;)

I have a dual language edition of Arthur Rimbaud's Complete Works and Selected Letters by Wallace Fowlie. Also Illuminations, and Season In Hell and The Drunken Boat, both translated by Louise Varese and published by New Directions. Excellent for studying Rimbaud in French without having to constantly be looking up words.

I like to read Les Fleurs du mal from this website - http://fleursdumal.org/ I read the original with my limited knowledge of French, and look up the stuff I don't understand in the translation. Much better that constantly referring to the dictionary.

I read Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf which had the Gaelic translation on the facing page. It made no sense to me, but was an interesting study nonetheless.

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Originally Posted by *Classic*Charm*

I read Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf which had the Gaelic translation on the facing page. It made no sense to me, but was an interesting study nonetheless.

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Are you sure it wasn't the Old English original on the facing page?

Aura by Carlos Fuentes has an English/Spanish bilingual edition.