/lit/ - Literature

>>10052939
But every book worth reading has translations in all major languages.

>>10053019
Did you miss the frog?

>>10053019
No.

I mean, I don't even think all the poetry of Victor Hugo has been translated to English.

>>10053019
>reading translations
don't do this

>>10053051
did you miss the "worth reading" part?

>>10053056
Fuck off.

>>10053055
>he fell for the translations meme
kek, got another one

>>10053051
Of all the french poetry available to you, why would you choose to read hugo

>>10053100
1) Because it's the best French poet, whether you like him of not.

2) It was just an example to say that if the greatest French poet remains largely untranslated in English, one can imagine that less famous poets (or poets from less important nations...) are even less translated.

>>10052939

>people on /lit/ still think that this has any effect whatever on English speakers

>>10053119
>the best French poet

>>10053119
>1) Because it's the best French poet, whether you like him of not.
now THIS is some spicy bait, 8/10 made me reply

>>10052939
>considers himself wise
>is literate
(written by a friend)

>>10053149
>>10053153
how would you know when you can't speak French?

>>10053158
Unlike you I can speak both english and french properly

>>10053164
English and French should be capitalised

>>10053149
>>10053153
So who's the best French poet, according to you? And don't meme up someone who wrote less than 100 pages of verse in his entire life.

>>10053171
Got 'em!

>>10053181
Baudellaire or Rimbaud
Saying that Hugo writes better poetry than either of these poets is just a contrarian and wrong opinion

Categories of worthwhile books that are barely translated:

>decadents of the late 19th century and modernists from the early 20th (going from Bloy to Marinetti)
>most Spanish authors from the "Siglo de Oro"
>Persian and Arabic poetry
>major French authors with abundant output (Hugo, Voltaire, Dumas, etc.)
>Russian authors that aren't Tolstoy or Dostoevsky (have the entire works of Tolstoy even been translated?)
>many Italian authors (going from minor Renaissance ones, to modern like Pasolini)
>Chinese novels out of the big five--not even talking about Chinese poetry which is barely translatable
>valuable memoirs from the entire world
>letters from famous authors
>some medieval works
>modern authors that have a cult following in their country but are barely marketed abroad
>epic poems from minor countries (Manas from Kyrgyzstan, etc.)

>>10053214
buh-buh-buh I read Crime and Punishment surely that makes me well read? :(

>>10053229
Sorry, bucko, if you haven't read the complete works of Rowling then you're plebbit-tier.

>needing to know anything besides English
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

>>10053267
>try reading rowling
>always have to go stretch my legs

>>10052939
i don't need anything else than good old billy, all you mongrels are just mad because you don't have a literary champion
HAHAHAHAH

>>10053181
nerval or gautier

>>10053202
But your opinion is the contrarian one who got mainstream. The former "poètes maudits" now are the classics, and Victor Hugo is the new "maudit"...

The poets you mention owe a lot to Hugo, without having his breadth. They bring something new compared to Hugo, they can go deeper briefly; but they are somewhat limited compared to use who ran through all the subjects, all the meters, all the fashions...

Rimbaud is godlike, but he wrote less than 100 pages of verse and apes Hugo in many of them, especially the earlier poems. Baudelaire only wrote 200 pages of verse, and although he's got major visions, his skills are ridiculously inferior compared to Hugo (too many faults, chevilles, redundant words, uninspired things even in the middle of his best poems).

They both admired Hugo by the way, but I suppose their own opinion doesn't matter?

In my opinion, just the very first poem of "La Légende des siècles" easily beats the average poem by Rimbaud or Baudelaire:

https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/La_Légende_des_siècles/La_vision_d’où_est_sorti_ce_livre

>>10052939
It depends, you can always go deeper in your own language; there are always new layers to discover. So it's possible to be well-read while being monolingual.It's still useful to know many languages to be able to think differently, but that's another matter.

>>10053055
Oh, fuck off.

>>10053299
Come on now. That's not serious.

>>10053306
>inb4 "nice reddit spacing"

>>10053157
A Friend is here????

karambwan

>>10053306
>they are somewhat limited compared to Hugo*

Don't know what happened there desu

>>10053306
Yeah, Rimbaud is a freak (incredible talent but very rough) and Baudelaire feels to technical to me (been a while since I read anything by him, but I was never able to connect directly with anything he wrote). I haven't read much of Hugo, but you're right, he's arguably the best French poet.

That said my own favorite is Leconte de Lisle, especially the Poèmes barbares, they're fucking metal.

>>10053267
B O I if you haven't read Stephenie Meyer you are the ultimate scum on the face of the earth and will burn in Hell after the day of Judgment.

>>10053095
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Well_Wrought_Urn

>>10053340
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Well_Wrought_Urn
youve never read this have you

inb4
>i t-totally read it...at least i read heresy of paraphrase!!

undergrad psl go

>>10053313
But being well-read is not about being an expert on one specific area but instead about being familiar with a multitude of genres, countries and time periods.

>>10053322
I always found Leconte de Lisle somewhat unrelatable (?), but he's a master, without a doubt.

Have you read the three volumes of Parnasse contemporain? There are very interesting things by forgotten poets inside. And that allows you to read Leconte de Lisle in his "original context", to have a better understanding of what is unique to him.

>considers himself better than monolingual people
>only speaks his native language plus english, the language that most people are obligated to learn just to navigate the outside world
wow big accomplishment kiddo

>>10053411
>inb4 "Spanish, Italian and French are almost the same language, wow big achievement to speak them all"

>>10053411
>I don't know why Harvard bothered showing up. They barely even won

>>10053415
and portuguese and romenian, anon

>>10053415
>>10053475
don't forget Latin

>>10053394
>contemporain
No, I'm not that well read in poetry, I'm just familiar with the big names. I do plan to read it at some point though to find other authors I could like.

Oh, yeah; w-well, im learning sanskrit as my fourth language

>tfw i wanted to go for greek or latin but i just found books on sanskrit first

>>10053019
>this is what americans actually believe

>>10054098
no one cares about your third world pity literature, pablo

Sorry friendos. While you eurofags were studying English just to get by in the world, I was enjoying my childhood in the US of A

>>10054101
i'm so happy i wasn't born an american holy shit

>>10054121
is it because the grapes are sour in america?

>>10054128
surely my american friend

>>10052939
>claims to live the /lit/ lifestyle
>doesnt work out

>>10053278
I laughed

>>10053019
Sure. Especially Harry Potter.

All the great writers were multilingual and translators.

>being well read
the mark of shit writer

>>10054278
>tfw monolingual translator

>>10052939
>speak four languages
>never read
>only shitposting here because you're on home page

>>10052939
I can speak three languages fluently, but I am not well read.

>>10053280
So you don't understand the Shakespeare scenes that are entirely in French?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

>>10054373
What.

>>10053181
Mallarmé, you fucking uncultured swine.

>>10053055
Translations of Poe by Baudelaire > Original
Same for Lovecraft.

>>10053181
Lautreamont white verse is still poetry by your narrow standards ?

>>10052939
What if I don't feel like learning a language that I'm never going to use, solely for the purpose of reading a book as it was originally published?

>Understands more than one language.
>None of them are ancient.
Also bwahahahahah

>he takes pride in being born into the easiest, most watered down germanic language only because the lizard men meme'd it into a lingua franca

>>10053329
There's nothing wrong with hebephilia desu

>>10053055
Translations can easily be just as good as the original works as long as the translator knows his shit and loves the work.

Also if the languages are cousins ( both born from latin ) its even easier to translate.

>>10055644
>he takes pride in speaking a meme language with a few relevant works
>he can never truly appreciate Shakespeare, Milton, and the King James because he's not a native speaker

Sad

>he doesn't know at least one language from each linguistic family

All of the greatest prosody is written in English, this has been true for at-least a thousand years.
The only other languages worth knowing are:
>Anglish
>Greek
>Latin
In that order.