If You Could Instantly Read One Additional Language, What Would It Be & What Would You Use It To Read? (7/2/23)

[Marc]

You can magically acquire one new language instantly for reading. Which language do you pick and what novel do you choose to read in this language?

[LindaJ^]

The Language would be Spanish. The books are too numerous to list!

[Paula]

French. Proust.

[Sarah]

I'm with Paula. Trying to read short stories in French as part of preparation for a fall trip to Bordeaux. Wish I had some magic!

[Vesna]

I'm going to cheat and lay down a royal flush (but in no particular order). The torment of translators for ages.

Italian: Dante's The Divine Comedy
Russian: Pushkin's Eugene Onegin
Japanese: Basho's haiku
Ancient Greek: Homer's Odyssey
German: Goethe's Faust

[Tracy]

I’ll add my own flush+1:
Chinese: the Four Books and Five Classics as well as the Classic Novels
Classical Arabic: Quran and many poets, as well as so much more in science and medicine
Sanskrit: the many Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, etc texts
Ancient Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek: the Bible

[David]

This is an interesting question. There are so many books translated into English from European languages that I feel like I'm not missing much. Same with the classics.

So I'd probably pick an Asian or African language with great literature that remains under-translated. I think I'd go with Malayalam.

[Lark]

Japanese.

[Franky]

I know some Spanish, but would like to more versed in the language to understand and communicate better with other and read some novels in that translation.

[Ellen]

It's hard to pick just one other language but I'll go with German.
I would reread Doctor Faustus and The Magic Mountain and The World as Will and Representation, Vol. 1 in the original and

[Zeynep T.]

La Horde du Contrevent by Alain Damasio is a book that has made me want to learn French right away. Reviews claim that this is one of the best science fiction books, yet it cannot be translated. The author receives excellent appreciation.

I have already started learning French. It is not going well but I am not going to give up. That book is going to be reviewed by me one day.

[Janet]

For me it would be Balzac and his nearly 100 novels and stories that make up his Comédie Humaine. I do read in French but must choose my readings carefully to match my not very advanced French, which is why I stick with contemporary authors. But a long-term goal is to master enough French to read Balzac comfortably.

[Hugh]

Probably Russian, but Russian writers tend to borrow a lot of French, and I can't always follow that well enough.

[Damini]

Russian for me too - want to read through Dostoevsky so fast that I get whiplash (not to mention wave after wave of existential crisis).

[Marc]

I'll go with Italian and I'd probably start with a Calvino, but would be interested in Dante, Boccaccio, Ferrante, Eco...

[Whitney]

Damnit, Marc. Every since you posted this, I've been trying to make up my mind. If the magic language acquisition extended to being able to converse as well, it would definitely be Spanish. If it was only for reading, I'm torn.

I like the idea of Japanese or Chinese, as I suspect those are among the hardest to capture in translation, as well as there being an endless supply of good books in those languages. On the other hand, I suspect that I would still miss a lot without the cultural background to go along with the language.

So, I think maybe French. I'd love to read all those classics in the original.

[Marc]

Half the time, I can't answer these questions and stump myself.
( ◔ ʖ̯ ◔ )

[Bill]

Since just about everyone has named more than one language, I'll go with Spanish and Japanese. I don't really have specific untranslated books that I'm keen to jump on at the moment. I'm sure there's some untranslated Mariana Enriquez, Samanta Schweblin, Cristina Garza, Cristina Fernandez Cubas, etc waiting for me. For Japanese, Shuji Terayama and lots of manga (last time I checked, a lot of Suehiro Maruo is not available in English).

[Bill]

Whitney wrote: "I like the idea of Japanese or Chinese, as I suspect those are among the hardest to capture in translation"

I've read a fair amount of well-translated Japanese texts. But most of the Chinese fiction I've read in recent years (either in translation or in Chinese) have been disappointing. Some of the translations were clearly questionable, but it might also be common practices in fiction writing that I have trouble with.

Some day I will attempt a translation, and brace for the multitudes who consider it "questionable"!

[Jenna]

I am with Janet, reading at an intermediate level in a second language all I want is to read the texts that are just out of reach. My French goal is Pierre Michon, whose work is gem-like on the border of poetry and prose. He does not like all of his translators but does endorse Ann Jefferson's Winter Mythologies and Abbots, which is a book I give as a gift all the time.

[Janet]

Jenna, thanks for mentioning Michon. He looks very interesting— yet another French writer I can aspire to read when I advance beyond my intermediate plateau!

[Kathleen]

I've been thinking about this question too, and couldn't decide until just now, when it finally hit me: Spanish, for Neruda, of course!

[Doll]

My first thought is French because of its beauty.

[Glenda]

Spanish. Although French is such a beautiful language I would consider learning it.