I read this comment about Don Quixote on another website:
>My husband has read both the original Spanish text and the translated one. He thought the English version was so boring because it lacks all of the puns and humor that don't translate well from Spanish. >Apparently the Spanish text is quite entertaining and is more comedic. I haven't read it in Spanish but he tried to explain some of the puns/jokes/plays on words and they were totally lost on me.
I have a copy of Don Quixote on my shelf. I am not afraid to call a boring book boring, no matter how much the pseuds protest. But realising what is lost in translation may be the final straw. When I hear about DFW or Joyce translated, I wonder what the point is and what monstrosity is created. For some reason I think less about the opposite.
This is a problem that the pseuds will never admit. No wonder so many translated russian books are so dull and sound like they were written by robots that live on dry crackers
I read it in German, a highly praised recent translation, and all I can say is that I certainly didnt get all the hidden/lost puns etc (a lot of such stuff and historic commentary was explained in footnotes, though), but I still had an insane amount of fun, entertainment and still had the feeling of a highly clever and sometimes meaningful novel, which earns all the praise it gets
Owen Wood
even a fraction of a masterpiece is still a masterpiece. cut off David's head, paint it blue, it's still a masterpiece. doesn't matter. once it has it, it can't lose it, if it truly lost it, it wouldn't have been worth anything to begin with.
Daniel Ward
Humor is a universal language. Puns are for children.
Asher Murphy
Hello, monolingual idiots.
Julian Miller
Ok, hit me with a good pun.
Nolan Adams
not my point, bud. i am sure the complete masterpiece is of greater intrinsic value, but to shit on its translations is folly. i don't see you running round shitting on pictures posted here or elsewhere of masterworks. i don't hear you bitching about the live versions of transcendent studio recordings. the greatness of these works are not somehow lost in their translation or even their relays.
Liam Rodriguez
>i don't see you running round it's an anonymous board, sweetie, how would you know? ;)
i'm not here to amuse you, child
Jackson Martin
>i don't see you running round shitting on pictures posted here or elsewhere of masterworks Not him but I actually tell people on here and /pol/los in particular that they should go see art irl (they don't) and that if you haven't been to at least 3 major artistic capitals then you have no business talking about art all the time.
Brayden Johnson
you aint, and you know it. otherwise you'd be on mu right now complaining that the telarc digital edition of richard strauss' Don Quixote is a tragic translation of the initial creation. but you aint doin that because you don't believe what you spoutin. you a hypocrite. go fuckyaself.
yeah yeah, and i'm sure you defy children looking through art collections in print, because they're not getting the true vatican experience.
Jeremiah Williams
yes, i have nothing better to do than to talk to as many retards like yourself about things i may not like.
learn english before you address me again, vermin
Jason Perry
so what i be speakin if not english? what right then would ya have to claim my monoglottal status? whatcha talkin bout, you rancid headed tot?
Lincoln Perez
Is this where you pretend you were trolling?
I don't understand what pseuds get out of this. This is an anonymous board. There's nobody to signal to. Maybe you're just practicing, but you really underrate how easy it is to see you for what you are.
You must read it in the archaic Spanish that even native Spanish speakers struggle with.
Easton Wilson
This might be the single most pseud thing I've ever read on Veeky Forums. I hope you can feel some semblance of pride knowing that you are faux-intellectual king of dumbass mountain.
Wordplay comes hand and hand with prose, it's one of the many advantages literature holds over other mediums.
Don Quixote has two spanish versions: the original one and the modern one because most of the words used in the original aren't used anymore in modern spanish.
Either way, I suggest you give Don Quixote a try in whatever your native language is.
