So I've been reading the Divine Comedy, Ciardi's translation, and I've been finding it tedious and hard to read (I'm already at the Paradiso nonetheless). It seems so unpoetic. Then I decided to just glance at the original and since I know Spanish I actually understood quite a lot of the first canto. Then I realized the Ciardi translation is shit and it's so much funner to read in the original language (lots of meaning is sacrificed to make it "seem" like Dante's) and it's hyper poetic and beautiful. Translations suck. I'm very much considering actually learning Italian for this.
That said, I never thought the ideas behind the Commedia were boring, just the delivery which is all the fault of the translation.
Next time you think some non-English writer is boring and tedious, just think it might be the translation and maybe the writer is fucking fantastic.
Learn other languages, anons. Set yourselves free from unimaginative translators.
Jonathan Ross
I'm in love with it reading the Mandelbaum translation.
Quit being a fucking pussy and learn how to pick translations
Anthony Nguyen
Perhaps the translation may be better, but even Mandelbaum would agree that his translation pales in comparison to the original Italian. I'm just saying for me the original seems so much more poetic and easy to read than my translation. Maybe Mandelbaum is better than Ciardi, but both are inferior to Dante.
Grayson King
To be fair though, just looking at the first stanza, Mandelbaum does render it much better than Ciardi. But still, the translation doesn't render the original Italian without sacrifice.
Isaiah Reyes
How is Longfellow? I'm about to read his translation.
Joseph Collins
retard
Angel Sullivan
Nonetheless, none will be as good as the original, how hard is that to accept?
Hunter Morales
Inferno < Paradise Lost < The Tragedy of Man
Liam Sanders
I believe you haha
Alexander Nelson
>translations of poetry are not as good as the original
wow pack it up guys this dude figured it out for us, lmao
Have you never been to lit before? What the fuck. Disdaining translations, often to the point of hyperbole, is like the board's single most prominent trope.
Joshua Rogers
Nobody is having trouble accepting that, how hard is that to accept?
Jonathan Ramirez
I have a copy of the Cary translation. How does it compare?
Ian Perry
Why don't you just learn Italian and see for yourself??
Christopher Lee
These are all pretty bad compared to the original sadly
Logan Jackson
Actually I was wrong, the Princeton one isn't that bad. Although I'm sure why they would switch "eternally" and "endure".
Xavier Sanders
...
Andrew Myers
You're right, op, and reading it in an annotated version makes it even better, because you can fully understand the context of every wording. >tfw people think Ulysses is a doorstopper ;)
Carson Wood
The problem is that a normal person has hardly enough time to learn multiple languages to fully appreciate all of Western literature. You would need at least Ancient Greek, Latin, Italian, German, French, Spanish, Russian and English to read the most significant works in the Western canon in their original language. That is still ignoring works in Portuguese, the Scandinavian languages,etc. And that is only Western literature, if you want to get into some Asian works you might want to add Japanese, Chinese and Sanskrit to that list.
It is just not feasible to learn half a dozen languages for somebody working a full-time job and probably also wants to do some things aside from studying languages. You might learn some of them if you have a particular interest but at some point you will have to accept that some works of literature you will only ever read as a translation.
Christian Davis
That one is a great edition! I hope one day exists an Spanish translation fully annotated
Dylan Hughes
For the most important parts you can even find one line and a full page of commentary, it's dense >I hope one day exists an Spanish translation fully annotated There must be something, did you check?
William Wood
Oh why didn't I realize that possibility? I'll do that next weekend.
Jeremiah Wood
english language scholarship on the divine comedy has overtaken italian-language work since the ~mid 20th century. all the serious research and work on it are done either in english or italian/english duo langauge. the major symposiums are all held in america/england now.