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In my opinion the biggest name of Brazilian literature in the 20th century is Guimarães Rosa. Unfortunately his language is very difficult to translate (it is d

In my opinion the biggest name of Brazilian literature in the 20th century is Guimarães Rosa. Unfortunately his language is very difficult to translate (it is difficult and fascinating even to Brazilians).

personlurking 6y ago
Scribd has an English translation of Rosa's Grande Sertão: Veredas, titled The Devil to Pay in the Backlands. I'm fluent in Portuguese (though not a native speaker) but couldn't get through the beginning of the original.
- nathanlied 6y ago
  I'm a native-level (European) Portuguese speaker, and although I can get through the beginning, it is with some effort. I'd describe the style as being akin to stream of consciousness, but with a somewhat jumbled sentence structure on top. Of course, I use the term 'jumbled', but I'm sure it's intentional, and it does have a striking effect because of that.
  - aflag 6y ago
    There's a graphic novel of it that you may find interesting. You can probably find it in portuguese bookstores. It's available on Amazon in some countries.
  - deleted 6y ago
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  - deleted 6y ago
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- caioariede 6y ago
  I'm native speaker and I'm currently reading Grande Sertão: Veredas. The beginning of the book (first 100 pages) is really hard, mostly because it use words that are not commonly used nowadays but also because some of the words are written as spoken. Some people like to read it loud because of this. I've tried myself for some paragraphs and it really made sense to me :)
  - sizeofchar 6y ago
    I only understood some words from him after a drama group played at my school. I used to be bored by his style, but after this, I accepted he was a genius.
ponker 6y ago
As someone who only speaks English... I'm fascinated by the concept of language that is difficult to translate. Can anyone direct me to English-language literature that is difficult to translate into other languages?
- aflag 6y ago
  Most books lose a bit of their magic when translated. However books full of neologisms and regional dialects are nearly impossible to translate without butching it. That's the case of Grande sertão veredas. You can tell the same story, but you'll probably miss the most important part of the book, which is the way it was written, the names of the characters, etc.
- Jtsummers 6y ago
  Look to literature that is "punny" or very culturally specific. An example: The title The Importance of Being Earnest is itself a pun on the character's (eventual) nature and name. Translating that to another language you'd need to change the name of the character to maintain the pun in the new language, which may not be feasible. That's a small example, but it's common in some books or plays to see things like this used frequently, especially in dialog.
  - the_af 6y ago
    > The Importance of Being Earnest To add to this, in Spanish the title is translated so that it loses all sense of being a pun: "La importancia de llamarse Ernesto". "Ernesto" in Spanish has no correlation with "earnestness", it doesn't sound the same as the Spanish concept, and in general, the title doesn't sound like a pun. Spanish translators often add a footnote saying something like "this is an untranslatable play on words in the original English".
  - wenc 6y ago
    Side point... one rare exception I can think of: The Asterix comic books in English maintained and even in some cases enhanced the humor of the original French. The puns were completely reinvented, and fit the context so well that one often forgets they were translations (well, on the other hand, I guess they weren't faithful translations so much as they were paraphrases).
neves 6y ago
Rosa's book "Grande Sertão: Veredas" is the best book I've read in my life. The author almost invents a new language, making it really difficult to read. I've just finished it in my third try. Rosa helped to translate it to German, Italian, French and Spanish, languages that he spoke. For me it is really impossible to translate. I don't know if a English version is worth it.

personlurking 6y ago

Scribd has an English translation of Rosa's Grande Sertão: Veredas, titled The Devil to Pay in the Backlands. I'm fluent in Portuguese (though not a native speaker) but couldn't get through the beginning of the original.

nathanlied 6y ago
I'm a native-level (European) Portuguese speaker, and although I can get through the beginning, it is with some effort. I'd describe the style as being akin to stream of consciousness, but with a somewhat jumbled sentence structure on top. Of course, I use the term 'jumbled', but I'm sure it's intentional, and it does have a striking effect because of that.
- aflag 6y ago
  There's a graphic novel of it that you may find interesting. You can probably find it in portuguese bookstores. It's available on Amazon in some countries.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
caioariede 6y ago
I'm native speaker and I'm currently reading Grande Sertão: Veredas. The beginning of the book (first 100 pages) is really hard, mostly because it use words that are not commonly used nowadays but also because some of the words are written as spoken. Some people like to read it loud because of this. I've tried myself for some paragraphs and it really made sense to me :)
- sizeofchar 6y ago
  I only understood some words from him after a drama group played at my school. I used to be bored by his style, but after this, I accepted he was a genius.

ponker 6y ago

As someone who only speaks English... I'm fascinated by the concept of language that is difficult to translate. Can anyone direct me to English-language literature that is difficult to translate into other languages?

aflag 6y ago
Most books lose a bit of their magic when translated. However books full of neologisms and regional dialects are nearly impossible to translate without butching it. That's the case of Grande sertão veredas. You can tell the same story, but you'll probably miss the most important part of the book, which is the way it was written, the names of the characters, etc.
Jtsummers 6y ago
Look to literature that is "punny" or very culturally specific. An example: The title The Importance of Being Earnest is itself a pun on the character's (eventual) nature and name. Translating that to another language you'd need to change the name of the character to maintain the pun in the new language, which may not be feasible. That's a small example, but it's common in some books or plays to see things like this used frequently, especially in dialog.
- the_af 6y ago
  > The Importance of Being Earnest To add to this, in Spanish the title is translated so that it loses all sense of being a pun: "La importancia de llamarse Ernesto". "Ernesto" in Spanish has no correlation with "earnestness", it doesn't sound the same as the Spanish concept, and in general, the title doesn't sound like a pun. Spanish translators often add a footnote saying something like "this is an untranslatable play on words in the original English".
- wenc 6y ago
  Side point... one rare exception I can think of: The Asterix comic books in English maintained and even in some cases enhanced the humor of the original French. The puns were completely reinvented, and fit the context so well that one often forgets they were translations (well, on the other hand, I guess they weren't faithful translations so much as they were paraphrases).

neves 6y ago

Rosa's book "Grande Sertão: Veredas" is the best book I've read in my life. The author almost invents a new language, making it really difficult to read. I've just finished it in my third try. Rosa helped to translate it to German, Italian, French and Spanish, languages that he spoke. For me it is really impossible to translate. I don't know if a English version is worth it.