About this english sucks, Spanish and Portuguese do not translate well.
About this english sucks, Spanish and Portuguese do not translate well.
But English translates well into Spanish and Portuguese?
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
My Blog: Of Delicious Recoil
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Depends, prose is not a problem. But poetry not. The free flowing of english, the grammatical structure more rigid of portuguese/english, the difference of sounds are a big trouble. Amazingly, even when we have latim words in english... The only translations I found interesting are those by such accomplished authors that they recreate all work.
No not kidding. That's how I found Campbell's translations - very bare. As I say it may be Campbell's fault and not reading Spanish I can't say.
About this english sucks, Spanish and Portuguese do not translate well.
And yet it translates well enough that I and a good many others can find a great deal of pleasure in the poetry of Neruda, Garcia-Lorca, Hernandez, Paz, etc... in spite of reading them in English translation. Of course something is always lost in translation. Something is lost when one reads a work of literature from a culture well-removed from oneself. But something is gained as well.
Just yesterday I was listening to multiple versions of Bach's Goldberg Variations. The original was written for harpsichord... but it has been commonly transcribed for piano. In this instance I was listening to a version for string quartet... and another involving a quartet of wind instruments. Transcription is not unlike translation. The instrument (language) is changed... but one hopes that the core of the music remains. Obviously, with translation, some works are far more difficult than others. Incredibly convoluted literature such as James Joyce must be unbearably difficult to translate... but perhaps even more so is the work that is deceptively simple... yet exquisite in the perfect choices of the poet. I would think of Herrick and Dickinson in English... Verlaine in French... Goethe... the Goethe of the short lyric poems... in German. Yet how many languages can one master to the degree that one can read approaching the grasp one has on one's native tongue?
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
My Blog: Of Delicious Recoil
http://stlukesguild.tumblr.com/
To think I found Bless Me, Ultima is average. Perhaps I should revisit my knowledge of Spanish Literature (if Bless Me, Ultima can even be considered that.)
Stop trying to defend english, it is their fault!Originally Posted by stlukesguild
Anyways, yes, of course. Portuguese and spanish translate well Italian and to some degree, French. The difficulty of translating Joyce (specially Finnegans) is just that it is written in "something", so it is not really correct to assume the basis as english, pass to portuguese, and hope to find the same work.
The most lyrical and simple pieces are really hard, it is quite hard to find the rythim or sound of piece from Dickinson or even Byron, simple because the portuguese words are not there for it. When the english verse is more structured, maybe somehow baroque, it is easy, becaue portuguese can give you lots of options to build sentences and structures.
Overall, Spanish and portuguese poetry have some excess, it is rare (and good poets usually do it) to find simplicity.
StLukes, you have ommitted Juan Rulfo...
a) You forgot him (I hope)
b) You don't like him
c) You don't know him
?
For he who cares, Pedro Paramo is a true masterpiece, a real jewel.
Et l'unique cordeau des trompettes marines
Apollinaire, Le chantre
Admittedly, I'd never heard of him... but I'll certainly be on the lookout for him.
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
My Blog: Of Delicious Recoil
http://stlukesguild.tumblr.com/
Well he's probably the most influential South american writer along with Borges (and THE great mexican writer if there is any)... he hasn't written much, his masterpiece Pedro Paramo and some nice short stories (he's written some movies and done some photography too). But if you're not blown away by Pedro Paramo, I'll eat my shorts.
I think Garcia Marquez was very much inspired by him too.
Et l'unique cordeau des trompettes marines
Apollinaire, Le chantre
If I recall well, Marquez said he had a written block and after reading Pedro Paramo, wrote 100 years. Very good book indeed, somehow remind me of Turn of the Shrew or Benito Cereno.
I just found this site by “mistake” and I am overly amazed how much information and tools Ive found so far and I am falling in love with it at first sight, but I am wondered about the lack of Spanish, south Americans and Mexican writers.
I am Mexican but I live so close to the border that I am almost living under the north American reading mostly international writers (King, Lovecraft, Poe, etc , etc). But I haven’t heard of any Spanish speaking writer so far, does anyone hear have ever read someone like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Perez-Reverte, Juan Rulfo or similar?
I admit I haven't read many authors who write in Spanish ....
other than Cervantes, Marquez, and a smattering of Borges. But I have recently read a few novels by Arturo Perez-Reverte. They are mostly literary mystery novels such as The Club Dumas. I wondered what others who have read him in Spanish think of him. I suppose he would be classed as a post modern. In any event, I find his writing much more interesting than Roth's or Delilo's.
I was reading the Las Aventuras del Capitan Alatriste saga and let me say its one of the most wonderful things Ive ever read in spanish, it perfectly mimics the speaking of the era and totally charms you with the description of historical events narrated in the stories, a must read and an instant classic from my point of view. Perez-Reverte is one of the most enlightened writers I have found.
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