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riffraffyesterday at 7:06 PM2 repliesview on HN

For those with a passing interest in this topic and quite some patience, "le ton beau de Marót" by Douglas Hofstadter is a whole book of musings about translation, particularly of poetry.

It's a fun book full of interesting linguistic trivia.

The patience would be needed to get through the 50 or so translations of the same poem, all different and "wrong" in some way.


Replies

kjellsbellsyesterday at 8:56 PM

also recommended: After Babel by George Steiner.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_Babel

jasomilltoday at 1:45 AM

See also the preface[1] to Hofstadter's translation[2] of Eugene Onegin.

[1] https://jasomill.at/HofstadterOneginPreface.pdf

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-465-0209...