Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking. Login or Take a Tour!
wasoxygen · 2917 days ago · link · · parent · post: Once upon a midnight dreary . . . I found myself swindled clearly, now my books have made me leery
As long as you enjoy studying and practicing language, so much the better. But Gabo himself said that the English translation of Cien años de soledad "improved on the original." A good translation prepared for a foreign reader might also include helpful supplemental material missing in an original text. I am slogging through The Count of Monte Cristo and was too dumb to realize who "the emperor" was until I was clued in by a footnote. The Pevear and Volokhonsky version of The Brothers Karamazov was much more interesting than Garnett thanks to all the notes.I refuse to read Cervantes or García Márquez in translation
more recent translations are much better. But still, why trust them?