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thebluesthour · 8 months

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Below, on the guesthouse terrace, chairs and shawls and white dresses can be seen. And beyond, the idyllic, clear, blue lake. A postcard.

Mihail Sebastian, Women (trans. Phillip Ó Ceallaigh)

#quotes #words #lit #literature #Mihail Sebastian #Women #romanian literature #works in translation #the world is blue at heart #m #queued

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morgan--reads · 8 months

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Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead - Olga Tokarczuk

Summary: One of the few residents of a remote Polish village, Janina spends her days translating William Blake, calculating horoscopes, and protesting hunting. When her neighbors start dying under mysterious circumstances, she uses her connection to animals and her astrological knowledge to propose a strange solution to the mystery.

Quote: “I think we all feel great ambivalence at the sight of our own Horoscope. On the one hand we're proud to see that the sky is imprinted on our individual life, like a postmark with a date stamped on a letter—this makes it distinct, one of a kind. But at the same time it's a form of imprisonment in space, like a tattooed prison number. There's no escaping it. I cannot be someone other than I am.”

My rating: 4.0/5.0 Goodreads: 3.96/5.0

Review: Its odd and totally unique narrative voice defines this book. Janina—who hates being referred to by her given name—is a specific and often unsettling individual, but she’s also smart, passionate, and in possession of a quiet, but distinct sense of humor. She’s not always sympathetic, but she feels very real. The mystery, such as it is, is clear enough from early on in the book, but the reveal still held a great deal of emotional catharsis and made the ending satisfying in a way as unexpected as the rest of the story.

The audiobook, read by Beata Poźniak, caused me to bounce off this book the first time I tried to read it, though I’m not sure why.

#drive your plow over the bones of the dead #olga tokarczuk #book review #book recommendation #thriller #mystery #works in translation

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whilereadingandwalking · 1 year

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Three by Valérie Perrin, translated by Hildegarde Serle, is a compelling melodrama about three inseparable friends—Adrien Bobin, Étienne Beaulieu, and Nina Beau—and their heartbreaks, fights, and battles as they grow up. Two timelines go back and forth: them as children, and them slowly coming together as estranged adults. Can they make amends? And what exactly broke them apart?

The Trans Through-line

So first, a necessary spoiler: narrator Virginie is Adrien, a trans woman who is still unsure about how she wants to present and how she wishes to transition. I did not appreciate how Perrin wrote this in as a 'reveal.' Someone had told me this twist already, and I believe it's a more effective novel knowing Virginie's identity from the start. There's a certain cheapness to it otherwise, a 'gotcha'-ness that I don't appreciate.

The deadnaming became more understandable once I realized that contemporary Virginie has not fully transitioned or decided to go by Virginie yet, sometimes she still goes by Adrien. Still, it was rough at times, and I think a poor choice. Virginie's struggle to figure out where exactly she's comfortable is I think well-written, and the 'twist' is meant to foil the way that she still sees herself as two people rather than allowing herself to be one, but I still don't appreciate the choice.

The Rest

Despite my issues with it, I never stop wanting to get to the end of this book. I still believe that few books need to be more than 500 pages, but this one made quite a lot out of the room it had. This is a tragic, intensely compelling HBO drama, with season-long mysteries and scattered big reveals or cliffhangers throughout. There's a soap quality to this one: psychopathic husbands, underhanded plots, blackmail. It's deeply cinematic too, I can see the friends moving in my head.

The emotional moments hit really hard, and the story of the three friends who belong together, who break apart, is a really good center to hold it all together. I was surprised how much I grew to care about the three of them. If you can accept the warnings above, I recommend this book, although I also plan to try and find opinions from trans reviewers on this one.

Major CW for emotional and psychological abuse, trans/homophobia, gender dysphoria, death by suicide and suicidal ideation, death/grief. Also for sexual assault, child abuse, fatphobia, alcoholism, false accusations, threat of institutionalization.

#three #valerie perrin #books in translation #works in translation #french books in translation #my book reviews

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belle-keys · 2 years

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Idk if you want/are willing to answer this since it's random but what's the issue with using italics when writing something in another language?

Btw, I'm not a native speaker of English. My actual native language has been written in books as italics and I've never seen it as an issue --should I be offended? This is something that also happens in books in my native language

Hi hi, thanks for the ask!

See, it’s not inherently harmful, but historically, it’s been a problem for a lot of groups. In books written in English, for instance, it’s typically dialogue or narration that’s in Spanish or Urdu or Chinese or whatever tf that you find getting italicized in books, and especially when minority group characters are speaking (see: the Token Asian Friend, for instance). And when you’re from a marginalized group in a predominantly white space, italicizing a standard language spoken by hundreds of millions of people is just another example of a language and culture being othered by the very white publishing industry or being made out to be alien to the standard, good English. And for people who’ve been told “you’re in America, speak English!” in the grocery or who are scared to use their native language in the airport because they’re scared of being called a terrorist, it’s not exactly reassuring to see your language being italicized.

Again, it’s not inherently harmful and you don’t need to be offended at all. I’m definitely not offended when Creole or Patois is italicized, but when you think about it: there’s no real reason that a foreign language needs to be italicized. And so I do get why some persons get annoyed when it happens.

#langblr #studyblr #ask #anon ask #languages #books and literature #works in translation #bilingual

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sleepiercreature · 17 days

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I couldn't find an English version so I put the fan translation of the sketch on top of the Dungeon Meshi: Adventurers Bible Complete Edition pages of this comic

#dungeon meshi #delicious in dungeon #mickbell #kuro #holm #daya #I don't speak japanese not my translation work I just mashed two images together

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readsofawe · 8 months

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#readsofawe #books #jewish books #rosh hashanah #jewish #yom kippur #judaism #days of awe #readathon #amreading #translation #translated literature #works in translation

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attyattlaw · 26 days

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usopp day 04.01.24.

#its hard to translate him on semi realism huh #usopp #one piece #just a quick sketch while im still buried in work

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toms-tm · 1 month

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This is basically the game yeah

#massive out of no where art style change I know but translating these characters into my normal style didnt work #looked at some Moomin artists I remembered from back in the day that I liked to get to this #my art #Moomins #the moomins #Snufkin #snufkin melody of moominvalley #little my #sniff moomin #moominvalley #snufmin

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fmayyy · 1 month

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Some more human Al’s

Not a deer yet but definitely a party animal 🤙

#alastor #human alastor #alastor fanart #hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel fanart #my art #still not really happy with the way I draw him but idk I’m getting there!#my style is just funamentally sooooooo different from the style of the series #that translating it is sooooo hard wahhhhh #but I will work on it some more and eventually land on something I’m happy with #he just doesn’t look deranged enough yet but WERE GETTING THERE #1k

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wh4rlord · 8 months

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ueghh had a vision

#fear and hunger #fear and hunger fanart #translating 'fear and hunger' in norwegian didnt work for a potential black metal band name #artwork #my art #digital art #enki ankarian #cahara #darce #ragnvaldr

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nelkcats · 11 months

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Dead Language Expert

Danny never thought that he could "major" in languages, and get a job as a translator. But apparently knowing all the dead languages by default and being able to time travel with the help of your ghost tutor was pretty useful outside of Amity.

It happened purely by chance, he was walking through a museum and started laughing because of a mistake in one of the sentences that completely changed the meaning of the text. The museum manager, of course, did not believe him, since many people had said that the piece was "impossible to translate". But he study it anyway.

Days later they were looking for him to translate all the things from that time. And he just carried on with it, in many more civilizations. In some cases he even asked for a few trips to the past to Clockwork to verify.

It got to a point where the wizards, heroes and villains over the world knew him as "the translator of dead languages" and some of them even tried to kidnap him to perform a summoning ritual. Danny rolled his eyes and easily freed himself, but the League assigned him an "escort" anyway.

Exasperated, the halfa escaped from his escorts and continued his work as normal. Superman almost fell out of his chair at the Watchtower meeting when he was informed that the boy had translated the language of Krypton and other missing planets. Besides having managed to lose both the Flash and Green Latern, what the fuck?

#dpxdc #Danny know all dead languages by default #is part of being a ghost #or part of being him #he's not sure #The museum manager asked him to translate and he accepted #he didn't expect the payment but it was good #so he ended working in translating #it was easy and he could time travel if he had any doubt #dp x dc #dc x dp #Justice League is worried about his knowledge #but he didn't do anything wrong #Danny is considering teaching at a university for fun #People think Danny is human and he didn't correct them #He also asked Clockwork for help so no one would notice his status as a halfa #Danny doesn't like being kidnapped but at this point in his life it's nothing more than a nuisance #while he could fight the summoning he really doesn't want to

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whilereadingandwalking · 2 years

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Symphony in White by Adriana Lisboa, translated by Sarah Green surprised me the most of all the books on my Brazilian books in translation list a few months back—it’s a new favorite. Clarice and Marta Inês are growing up in an oppressively silent country house in rural Brazil.

They break out, each in their own way, from the world of their parents, surviving the recklessness and pain that blossoms from the trauma of their youth. Now, decades later, Maria Inês is coming back to the farm, her daughter alongside her, to see Clarice. The two, in coming together, will have to face all of their demons, old loves, and bittersweet nostalgia. It’s a story of survival: two women experience a future that is nothing like what they expected, but they made it there nevertheless.

Content warnings for mob violence, domestic violence, fatphobia, anti-Blackness, r-slur, substance abuse, rape, child abuse.

#symphony in white #adriana lisboa #brazilian literature #books in translation #translated literature #works in translation #women in translation #my book reviews

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inkskinned · 1 year

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sometimes we just need someone to pay enough attention.

for the longest time i had been trying to read The Lord of The Rings. everyone had sung the praises for it, over and over. i'd seen clips of the movie and it seemed like it could be fun, but actually reading it was fucking horrible.

my parents had the omnibus - all the books squished into one big tome - and in the 4th grade i started sort of an annual tradition: i would start trying to read TLR and get frustrated after about a month and put it back down. at first i figured i was just too young for it, and that it would eventually make sense.

but every time i came back to it, i would find myself having the exact same experience: it was confusing, weird, and dry as a fucking bone. i couldn't figure it out. how had everyone else on earth read this book and enjoyed it? how had they made movies out of this thing? it was, like, barely coherent. i would see it on "classics" list and on every fantasy/sci-fi list and everyone said i should read it; but i figured that it was like my opinion of great expectations - just because it's a classic doesn't mean i'm going to like experiencing it.

at 20, i began the process of forcing myself through it. if i had to treat the experience like a self-inflicted textbook, i would - but i was going to read it.

my mom came across me taking notes at our kitchen table. i was on the last few pages of the first book in the omnibus, and i was dreading moving on to the next. she smiled down at me. only you would take notes on creative writing. then she sat down and her brow wrinkled. wait. why are you taking notes on this?

i said the thing i always said - it's boring, and i forget what's happening in it because it's so weird, and dense. and strange.

she nodded a little, and started to stand up. and then sat back down and said - wait, will you show me the book?

i was happy to hand it over, annoyed with the fact i'd barely made a dent in the monster of a thing. she pulled it to herself, pushing her glasses up so she could read the tiny writing. for a moment, she was silent, and then she let out a cackle. she wouldn't stop laughing. oh my god. i cannot wait to tell your father.

i was immediately defensive. okay, maybe i'm stupid but i've been trying to read this since the 4th grade and -

she shook her head. raquel, this is the Silmarillion. you've been reading the Silmarillion, not the lord of the rings.

anyway, it turns out that the hobbit and lord of the rings series are all super good and i understand why they're recommended reading. but good lord (of the rings), i wish somebody had just asked - wait. this kind of thing is right up your alley. you love fantasy. it sounds like something might be wrong. why do you think it's so boring?

#thanks for reminding me this happened #writeblr #warm up #i don't think this story translates well to the page #IRONIC!!!! :)#but yeah man i read the Silmarillion before i read the hobbit #the omnibus didn't explain what it was and i figured - you start at the beginning and then you read from the beginning #that's how books work #how was i supposed to know #EDIT IN THE TAGS: hi i think i worded this in a confusing way #the omnibus had ALL the stories in it - the silm #the hobbit #and all of LOTR #they just put the silm in the front so i thought logically it was the first book #that's how an omnibus usually works after all - the first book in the series is the first book in the tome #to be fair i GUESS the silm takes place “before” the hobbit????

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tofixtheshadows · 1 month

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So I've been thinking lately about how Mithrun is Kabru's dark mirror (more on that another time- it needs its own post), and I thought it interesting that one of their parallels is that they were both cared for by Milsiril, but in opposite directions. She took Kabru in as her foster after he was orphaned and tried to convince him not to become an adventurer. On the flip side, she helped rehabilitate Mithrun specifically so that he could rejoin the Canaries.

And I kept wondering: why?

For Kabru, obviously she loves him a whole lot- despite any other shortcomings in their relationship, I do believe that.

So I get why she tries to convince him not to go dungeoning, and, failing that, at least prepares him as thoroughly as she can.

But why help Mithrun? She used to hate Mithrun, but after realizing what a secretly twisted person he was, she actually thought of him more positively (oh, Milsiril). So it wasn't as if she held the kind of grudge that might motivate her to make his already-depleted life even more miserable by sending him back to the dungeons. And it wasn't that she felt bad for him either, since she didn't visit Mithrun for the first ~20 years of his recovery.

The Adventurer's Bible says that Utaya was the impetus for Mithrun returning to the Canaries, but Milsiril is the one who made the trip to see him and tell him about it.

Why would Milsiril work so hard to get her old coworker back into fighting fit? Why encourage him to return to such a dangerous lifestyle, when she was the one who chose not to mercy-kill him?

That last panel is such a crazy thing to hint at and then never elaborate on. Without it we could have just thought that Milsiril wanted the Canaries' work to continue without her, even if it seemed out of character. I think some people even assume she's just a natural caretaker as a foster mom and handwave it to include nursing Mithrun too. What could Milsiril's suspicious motives be? What does she gain from Mithrun joining the Canaries that isn't an altruistic desire to see dungeons safely sealed? Feeling a sense of responsibility for the work she left behind isn't an ulterior motive.

My theory is: Milsiril, knowing that Mithrun was empty save for the burning desire to face the demon again, wound him up like a clockwork doll and pointed him back at the dungeons.

Hoping that he'd eliminate the biggest threat to Kabru's life, before it was too late for him.

Milsiril the puppetmaster.