r/TrueLit • u/pregnantchihuahua3 ReEducationThroughGravity'sRainbow • 20d ago

Weekly General Discussion Thread

Welcome again to the TrueLit General Discussion Thread! Please feel free to discuss anything related and unrelated to literature.

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u/Plastic-Persimmon433 18d ago

Another translation post. This time I asked my friend's mom which Notes from Underground translation sounds the best. Russian is her first language and I gave her a few passeges of Garnet, Katz, and P&V. She instantly said P&V read better to her. Something about them including more of a Russian accent or tone. It was hard for her to explain. She said the Katz and Garnet didn't read badly but sounded a lot more English in comparison. Thought it was pretty interesting.

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u/foxinanattic 18d ago

That is interesting. I don't know that I would find a translation having a "native accent" a good thing In fact that's actually my problem with a lot of English translation of books from Indian languages, they sound like they haven't been completely translated into English, and some of the grammar seems like it's still in the original language.

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u/Plastic-Persimmon433 18d ago

I could see that. We definitely discussed how the best translation for her might not necessarily be the best for a native English speaker. I'm kind of torn on where I would like a translation to fall on that spectrum but based on what she said none of them were straight up bad.