What are some English books that don't translate well into any other language?
>>7896150
Shakespeare
>>7896162
That's a nice book.
>>7896171
It's alright
>>7896150
All of them. English is the King of written language and to translate it is tantamount to taking a dump in the book and clapping it.
>>7896178
Non-english native here, I agree with the first sentence of your post
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam by FitzGerald
Shakespeare, Woolf, probably Joyce
Crime and punishment
>>7896659
nice english book
>>7896150
pic unrelated?
>ITT people that didn't read any translations of english to another language
this board is pathetic
>>7896150
Mervyn Peake, Dickens, Pynchon
>>7896725
You really managed to figure out that this place is full of pretentious blowhards who feign greater knowledge than they possess to cling on to a makeshift identity of elitism?
That makes you better than all those tryhards, gratzzz senpai
>>7896739
>Pynchon
Not true, the German translations of both Mason & Dixon and Against the Day are terrific.
>>7896661
...it is English
>>7896739
>dickens
>pynchon
are you a retarded? you better be
>>7896216
cucked
>>7896150
Real talk though, how the fuck do the Finnegans Wake translations work?
>>7897078
They put the words in a different language
>>7897082
Yeah, but most of the words aren't even in a translatable language
>>7897095
Yeah, they just leave it be and say it was translated. That way it is just as difficult to read for non-English speakers as for English speakers.
>>7896178
I agree. I´m czech and czech is a shit-tier language for reading and writing. Czech poetry is unreadable torture
>>7897078
I would guess by translating the basic English on which it is built and leaving everything else as it is. This probably makes it even less intelligible than it already is, but whatever, some idiot will buy it. Glory to capitalism, may no endeavour from which you stand to profit ever be beneath you!
>>7896150
Apparently one Italian translation either matches or exceeds Joyce's original. sooooooooooooooo
>>7896150
Infinite Jest. The language is too rich. Reading it in another language is like listening to somebody fart Beethoven.
>>7896150
Infinite Jest. You see, there's a lot of idiomatic language in there that's difficult to translate with fidelity to the author's original vision. For that reason, I'm terrified to read translations of Infinite Jest; I am somewhat possessive of the book, so seeing the original vision so radically warped made me fearful of IJ translations in all incarnations. I've ultimately decided it's just better to not read them.
>>7896753
How do they reproduce the effect of 18th century English?
>>7897273
This isn't true. Go look at a Finnegans Wake translation
Any postmodern work really
>>7897078
Lots of footnotes, this is about the Chinese version.
>As the Times reports, “the first, iconic sentence (‘riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs’) takes up three lines in Chinese but requires 17 lines of footnotes.”
English is in a higher 'resolution' than other languages
You can basically pinpoint any action or sentiment
Trying to translate it is like getting a gameboy to emulate a PS4
>>7899290
this
>Reading translations
>Kill yourself
>>7899290
Examples please
I'm reading a translation of Confederacy of Dunces because someone offered it to me. I like it, but I can just feel how funnier and cleverer it would be in english. How the fuck are you even supposed to translate that weird accent in French?
>>7896761
Dosoevsky is Russian
>>7899290
>regards native amerilard
english is laughably simple, something like finnish applies to "You can basically pinpoint any action or sentiment"
>>7896659
>>7896761
English is the greatest language in the world. It is almost impossible to translate well.
Beckett
>>7899801
Finnish is the logical conclusion to language. Perfect balance between consonants and vowels and you can bend and shape the words to the point it wouldn't be possible to say the same thing in english without a long sentence
>>7900093
inglish is not really a language. it's just the means used by the danes, the english and the normans to communicate. You cannot blame a crutch for that it has no beauty.
