Listen to books in translation or NOT?

[issemiyaki]

@zenmonkey

Well, it's good to know that I'll be in good hands when reading works translated into French.

Currently, I'm reading La Vie Devant Soi. (I know Émile Ajar, the author, has a controversial past, but his writing is so rich.) I have the audio version so I can listen and read at the same time.)

I also have Arrête avec tes mensonges, by Phillippe Besson.

But these two were originally written in French.

As far as translation into French are concerned, not sure which one to start with just yet. I'm not a fan of crime novels. I'm more of a Junot Diaz, Jhumpra Lahiri-type of reader. More along the lines of Chekhov.

[Ani]

A good translator translates into the target language idiomatically. Have you ever read anything professionally translated into your native language that was not idiomatic? At most there will be rare awkwardness.

Yup this. The only times I have read books translated into English that were not translated idomatically were Russian lit. In fact, if you are going after a certain register, it can be great to find a translated work that you understand in English. Wanna sound like a bratty 8 year old? Diary of a Wimpy Kid/Journal d'un Degonfle. Teenage ennui? Twilight series. Maia Baran even captures the vocal sentiment in her reading of it Cavesa has said the Sookie Stackhouse series translated into French is chock full of colloquial dialogue.

I don't necessarily think translated books are easier to understand. Perhaps on average, but not as a simple fact. The audio books of Harry Potter are actually pretty tricky to understand at times because Bernard Giraudeau does a huge range of voices and some of his characters talk REALLY fast, while other talk so slowly it makes for a different challenge. On the flip side, Nymphéas noirs, is not a translated novel. It is read by Colette Sodoyez, who I think might possibly be one of the voices from Assimil NFWE. Her reading is so crisp and clear (and gives me flash backs of M. Duclos) that it is markedly less challenging listening to this book than others.

[Cavesa]

1. I think the sudden easiness was also caused by the fact you were comparing the rather easy stuff that is listening to an audiobook (audiobooks in general are not too hard, they are read by one person, at a pleasant pace, and the person is trained to read really well) with the hard stuff, which is listening to just some radio program you happened to catch at that moment. I think this was much more important for the overall impression than the fact the audiobook was a translation.

2.There are translations of various quality with idiomaticness (is that a noun?) being one of the criteria. Actually, I have seen very bad translations to Czech (for example one translator dared to correct the author and change the impolite words, which were however important for the situation and the personality of the book character), but in general the translations from English to such a big language as French are likely to be better, given the sheer amount of translators, resulting in fiercer competition. Plus some authors are translated better than others, usually the really famous ones, as the publisher doesn't want to mess up, probably.

3.While we tend to agree in general, that translated books tend to be easier than originals, I would be more careful while talking about audiobooks, as Ani says. The reader is extremely important. I would even say that audiobooks would be more appropriately sorted in difficulty levels based on the reader, not the author, the genre, or the translation/original distinction.

So, I don't think you are wasting your time, however, you may need to leave the comfort zone often. After all, we need to listen to the language for so long that a few hours of "wrongly chosen" material shouldn't matter. Enjoy your Steven King, and add some Jean-Christophe Grangé to your reading list, I think you'll enjoy his books

[zenmonkey]

@zenmonkey
Currently, I'm reading La Vie Devant Soi. (I know Émile Ajar, the author, has a controversial past, but his writing is so rich.) I have the audio version so I can listen and read at the same time.)

As far as translation into French are concerned, not sure which one to start with just yet. I'm not a fan of crime novels. I'm more of a Junot Diaz, Jhumpra Lahiri-type of reader. More along the lines of Chekhov.

Such a fantastic writer!!!! Enjoy that. You might also enjoy Daniel Pennac - La Fée Carabine. And all the other books of his...

For translated authors, that mostly exist in French and are either translated late or poorly in English look into Arto Paasilinna or Elias Canetti.

[issemiyaki]

Thank you all so much for such wonderful recommendations!!!!

[Seneca]

Stephen King books are generally very well translated. I believe at one point he actually worked on choosing translators. Many books translated into French are works of art. Don't hesitate to work with translated books.

That is a nice suggestion since his books are so long and are generally page-turners. I just wish I trusted Amazon more to properly note which listings of his are actually Italian.

[zenmonkey]

Stephen King books are generally very well translated. I believe at one point he actually worked on choosing translators. Many books translated into French are works of art. Don't hesitate to work with translated books.

That is a nice suggestion since his books are so long and are generally page-turners. I just wish I trusted Amazon more to properly note which listings of his are actually Italian.

You can go to amazon.it to get the ISBN and then search it on your local Amazon site.

[issemiyaki]

Okay - I might be re-thinking the usefulness of books in translation.

I don't think this is an either or thing. I will continue to read both; that is, books originally written in French, as well as translations.

But I'm starting to clearly see they both have major advantages.

I'm currently reading some Harry Potter translated into French. What's good about this is I'm constantly running across phrase and expressions that I easily recognize and I'll say to myself: "So that's how you say: 'I'm warning you.'" Had I read that phrase in a book originally written in French, I might have had to look up the expression, and after a while I might have come to the same conclusion.