Should books only be read in their original language

It's obviously the most authentic way to enjoy a work, but you shouldn't deny yourself classics or other shit you might want to read because of your own pretentiousness. Translation is a worthwhile labor and a good translator can make the work even better (this is the exception, not the rule however)

>arguing sublantics
It's ALL a translation. Either you're translating it in your head while reading it, or another writer is translating it.

Perhaps in general, but with good writers, the ones worth reading, the use of language is extremely important. A good translator will give you the feeling of it successfully, but it won't be the same experience, obviously, so I'll say that instead of being a matter of prose vs verse, it's a matter of what author you are reading.

>not thinking in Russian

If you don't know AT LEAST 3 dead languages AND 5 living languages, get off this board.

But if a book is an interpretation of an author's experiences, than a translation is an interpretation of that interpretation based in the translator's experience s, meaning it's no longer made up of the original experiences that inspired the work in the first place.

THe only reason I opened this dumb thread is to post my Steiner meme

This guy thinks Leviathan is written in Olde English.

I learned Latin in highschool, and learned enough to read Virgil's Aeneid, , some Plautus comedies, Metamorphoses and most of Catullus, along with some historically relevant prose, like Caesar and Cicero. I learned all the meter, and was able to read it without needing to translate the words in my head, and only occasionally looking up words. I'm happy to be able to say I've done it, but there's no way I'd do it again with other languages and other works. I also don't remember nearly enough Latin to even revisit these ones.

Reading a book that's not your mother tongue is in itself an interpretation based on the translator's experience. The only difference is the translator is you.

not him but idgaf about pretty words in any language. it's the content that matters.

>Be Dante
>Spend years polishing and refining the Florentine dialect in order to create your own poetic language.
>Write 4720 verses of carefully constructed terza rima, in which sound, rhyme, allegory, syntactic structure, high and low tone are masterfully used.
>700 years later
>loooool yeah bbbbbbro who fucking cares 'bout language (even though that's the fucking point of poetry anyway haha)bro if it's not ennglishhh is not worth reading anyway loool xD

youtube.com/watch?v=WFoC3TR5rzI

This idea is retarded. Take Lolita for example. Nabokov wrote it in both English and Russian. Should those be considered separate works? If you’re not reading poetry or something with a weird style (a la Finnegans Wake) then it doesn’t matter if it is a translation or the original. Also, Cervantes literally brags about Don Quixote being translated to other languages in the book, so the whole “as the author intended” schtick is a meme. Authors want their work to be translated. Anyone who says otherwise is a pseud.

Nabokov's A Hero of our Time is fantastic, and I have heard Baudelaire's translations of Poe are an improvement

No, because the Gospel of Michel wouldn't spread.

Mitre spent 40 years translating it to spanish, it's not the same but it's a worthy alternative if you don't want to learn italian just for one book

And with that said, Longfellows translation is a delight

Yes, there always be a "translator" when taking in a piece of art. But when you read a translation, there is now 2 translators, an extra middleman that dilutes the work

>Baudelaire's translations of Poe are an improvement

Really doubt that

i don't read poetry for that exact reason
i really don't give a fuck how well you can make words fit together, just like i really don't give a fuck how well you can throw a plate like a frisbee or balance pennies on top of each other. Worthless talents aren't interesting because you're good at them.

For what othet reason do you read poetry? Might as well read a novel then

>i don't read poetry for that exact reason

>content with staying on his island of English
> Reassures himself that translators will always make the right choices

Gotta realize that engrish can only take you so far. Learn 6+ languages to actually understand literature.

You're a fucking idiot and don't belong here, might as well go to an art board and exclaim how little you care for and understand painting you absolute moron

If you think the only value in literature is how pretty some words sound together, than you're the real idiot here, friendo.

Mind numbingly stupid response, there's more to the medium than aesthetics, but to vaguely diminish that aspect is akin to faulting painting for "just putting lines and colors together," it relies entirely on putting words together you ignorant fuck. I don't think this literature stuff is for you

holy shit its real

memes became reality this day

I believe he wrote it in English and translated it himself into Russian. It's still a translation and isn't perfect, although Nabokov did his best obviously.

Also, just because authors are happy to be translated doesn't mean they think that translation is equal to their own work. Being translated means you've reached an international audience and are successful, that's why they rejoice in it.

>then it doesn’t matter if it is a translation or the original.
Fuck off

>user doubts the value of author's intent
>in a thread about translation vs original text

If you don't value what the author has to say, then why are you reading the book at all you big dummy.

Just whenever possible, you'll probably never be able to read EVERY work that interests you in its original language, and it's better to read a translation than to never experience an important work at all. I have found rereading works in their original language almost always helps me appreciate them more and deepens my understanding of them, of course. Depending on how wide the culture/language barrier is a translation may have to omit or change things in such a way that the work becomes its own new product.

I would rather have some benefit than none, and I can’t justify the time spent to learn 10+ languages well enough that I actually think in them rather than just translating in my head to English while I read.

I already have a reading list that will take 10-15 years to get through as well, so my time could better be spent reading. Also I figure since I write and plan to continue writing only in English, anything that can’t be expressed in the language I write in is pointless to my own creative education.

Look anybody who is not retarded would agree with these two points.

1. Books are (for the most part) best in their original language.

2. That being said, learning the 10+ languages fluently enough to read the world's best literature (without having to translate them to English in your head, defeating the purpose of not reading a translation) is wildly impractical.

So can we stop the "only read books in the original meme"? Translations are a necessary evil. If you only read books in languages you know - most likely 2 to 3 - you will be missing out on many of the world's best books for no other reason than being a pretentious intellectual fuck.

I am reading the translation in its original language. Checkmate atheists

anti-translation shitposting is only for thirdworld (yes that includes France) polyglots with poor aesthetic sensibility yet a need to feel superior to others

also most of them have read less than 200 books

Lol. Take the beginning of Lolita in English and compare it to any translation.

What if the translation is better?

German Nietszche is superior to any translation. It's a fact.

your favorite author read hundred of translations

Sure, especially poetry.

It probably isn't, so I doubt that's a problem you'd have to face very often. It's hard to make a judgment about which is "better" unless you've read both anyway, and people who have would almost always say the original is better.