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There's room for conflicting viewpoints of course, but Shakespeare is enjoyed in the original by English speakers in the 21st century, and academic consensus ca
by psd1 3y ago
There's room for conflicting viewpoints of course, but Shakespeare is enjoyed in the original by English speakers in the 21st century, and academic consensus calls his language "Modern English" - as opposed to Middle English, which is a struggle to understand, or Old English, which very few people can grok today.
So no, it requires no translation.
I disagree completely that the humour is lost. There may be jokes I don't get, but that's more true for Futurama with all its 90s American telly references.
Perhaps Chaucer would be a better example?
- jiggawatts 3y agoI studied Shakespeare in school from a textbook that had two columns: the original and the modern English translation. Something like this: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/read-shakespeare-side-by-side-in-a-modern-translation/ https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/read-shakespeare-side-by-side-... > So no, it requires no translation. It does for most students in most schools. Sure, there's some grey-haired academics that insist it doesn't need translation -- but they've spent a career learning Shakespearean English!