No matter how good the translation of Lord of the Rings, it's never gonna be the same as reading the original English. The text is inextricably linked to the En

No matter how good the translation of Lord of the Rings, it's never gonna be the same as reading the original English. The text is inextricably linked to the English language, the English countryside, a certain feel that cannot be entirely preserved in translation. It's probably not gonna be so bad in German, but in Italian? Forget it. 100 Years of Solitude is an absolute masterpiece. It's very difficult to put a finger on exactly why, but all agree there is a tone to it and to the way he tells the story, which usually people call "magical realism". The way it's so inexorably connected to a South American place and time, it's gonna be a different thing if you read it in English (credit though to the translators who do this incredibly difficult job in a stunning manner). The musicality and mood of the speech, for lack of a better description, cannot be accurately rendered in English. In short, it's more nuanced than "what's a sentence I can say in English that I can't say in German".