Found an amazing blog called the untranslated about world literature that has yet to be translated into English...

Found an amazing blog called the untranslated about world literature that has yet to be translated into English, you should google it.

Have you ever learned a language in order to read a book not translated into your mother tongue? Regale us with an account of how your efforts went, whether or not you ended up reading the book or not.

After reading one entry from the aforementioned blog I am seriously considering learning Spanish to read pic related, or maybe just improving my French to read the French interpretation of it.

Any international anons here for whom English is not a first language - is there any book from your country you think should be translated into English that hasn't been already? A classic we have no idea exists?

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I wish the Megami Tensei books were actually translated into English and printed. I'm a fan of the games so I would like to have them even if they're trashy.
There's a blog I found online of some guy who was learning Japanese and decided to translate the books; I don't believe he ever finished translating the third one though. They were interesting to read but I guess because he was just doing this in his spare time the wording was very awkward and there were lots of errors throughout. ):

My main motivation while learning Chinese was it's literature.
It's also the only motivation for me continuing to study Chinese after uni.

I've also read Chinese translations of several Japanese books that are not avaliable in English - historical fiction by Yasushi Inoue,essays by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki.

Feels satisfying. One can plateau quite quickly with the spoken side of the language, but reading literature is so complex, and so involved with resonances with other texts in that language, that as a reader you just get better, and better, and better with no end in sight.

Interesting, I found your post enjoyable to read. Was there a Chinese work of literature in particular that inspired you to learn it? Or a few books in particular?

From year 1: Tang dynasty poetry (Du Fu, Wang Wei, Li Bai etc.)
From year 2: Zhuangzi
From year 3: Dream of Red Chambers/Story of the Stone
From year 4: The essays of Lu Xun
From year 5: Buddhist Sutras and Zen dialogues
From year 6: Eileen Chang
From year 7: Confucius

The Tang poetry is most immediately interesting, and most closely tied to the specific characteristics of the Chinese language.

>Dream of Red Chambers/Story of the Stone
>Eileen Chang

Have you read these in English as well? Are they that much better in Mandarin?

Are those novels really good?
With which western novels wpuld you compare them in quality and the themes they deal with?

Yes, i've read them in English as well. On their own they wouldn't provide the best case for learning Chinese, as Eileen Chang also wrote in English, and David Hawkes' translation of Dream of Red Chambers must be the best translation of any classical Chinese fiction into English. Probably deserves to be ranked among the greatest achievements in translated fiction anywhere.

The best case for learning Chinese for literature's sake would be Tang poetry, and ancient philosophy too.

Dream of Red Chambers I don't know what to compare it to, it's a sprawling everyday life picture of a noble family in 18th century china, with the family's fortunes gradually on the slide. The hero is a boy surrounded by female servants and relatives, shielded from the 'masculine' 'real world', struggling with the fact that he's got to leave the luxury and certainty of childhood and grow up.

At the same time, there is a fantastical framing story, and lots of metaphorical resonances. And some kind Dickensian humour. Maybe you could compare it to Thackeray's Vanity Fair? I've never read Vanity Fair though.

Quality? People spend their lives studying only this one book, get obsessed with mapping the layout of the houses and gardens described, or decoding hidden meanings.

Eileen Chang's short stories are like Somerset Maugham, because she read a lot of his works. But where Somerset Maugham's stories are sometimes like pop fiction, Eileen Chang's have a deeper resonance because of her familiarity with traditional Chinese literature. Her stories are a bit like a combination of Somerset Maugham and Dream of Red Chambers.

None of the others are novels. Zhuangzi is philosophy and parables, Lu Xun was a good hater, that's why is essays are fun.