Archived threads in /lit/ - Literature - 1166. page

>>9466781
you'd be better off learning French mate./

PS: See Uncle Monty's excellent rendition of hémisphère dans une chevelure in Withnail & I.
Hilarious because he manages that uniquely gay English feat of making a French prose poem actually rhyme.

>>9466781

I've got the Oxford classics version. No idea how good the translation is but the dual translation is pretty fun to read alongside the English.

Let's take the last three lines from La Mort des pauvres, and compare the different translations (those lines are a definition of death):
>C'est la gloire des Dieux, c'est le grenier mystique,
>C'est la bourse du pauvre et sa patrie antique,
>C'est le portique ouvert sur les Cieux inconnus !

If you want the exact meaning, Aggeler is spot on (it's almost word-for-word translation), but the musical enchantment in the original disappears:
>It's the glory of the gods, the mystic granary,
>It is the poor man's purse, his ancient fatherland,
>It is the portal opening on unknown Skies!

If you want a rendition of Baudelaire's harmony and music, at the expense of the original words, Roy Campbell is interesting, as he delivers a reinterpretation of his own:
>It is God's glory and the mystic grange:
>The poor man's purse and fatherland it seems,
>And door that opens Heavens vast and strange.

Cyril Scott gives a better rendition of Baudelaire's tight and solemn form, which is the most visible thing in Baudelaire's poetry, while preserving the original meaning:
>'Tis the fame of the gods, 'tis the granary blest,
>'Tis the purse of the poor, and his birth-place of rest,
>To the unknown Heavens, 'tis the wide-open door.

Personally, I prefer Cyril Scott, by far. His translation feels almost as good as the original. It just works.

>disclaimer: I compared the different translations on fleursdumal.org

>>9466768
I think he should stop shilling himself on /lit/ and check Rule 7.

>>9466787
Actually I'm not Michael Savage. I was just wondering what people thought of his skills as a conservative author as opposed to Limbaugh or others.

I would leave this board if a thread like this took off. I really don't want to associate with people who unironically read tripe like this.

>>9466749
You're not missing anything.

>>9466759
Can't be the case. There has to be a reason he is considered one of the greats.

>>9466767
It's because of the way he used serial publication. It was accessible to people and fun to read, so he became very popular and has been since. It's just cultural momentum and pseuds.

The Anatomy of Melancholy

The sabres of paradise

>>9466704
This is a very very good title. And a good book too.

>>9466766
cringe

A white elephant, caparisoned with a fillet of gold, runs along, shaking the bouquet of ostrich feathers attached to his head-band.

On his back, lying on cushions of blue wool, cross-legged, with eyelids half-closed and well-poised head, is a woman so magnificently attired that she emits rays around her. The attendants prostrate themselves, the elephant bends his knees, and the Queen of Sheba, gliding down by his shoulder, steps lightly on the carpet and advances towards Antony.[Pg 32] Her robe of gold brocade, regularly divided by furbelows of pearls, jet and sapphires, is drawn tightly round her waist by a close-fitting corsage, set off with a variety of colours representing the twelve signs of the Zodiac. She wears high-heeled pattens, one of which is black and strewn with silver stars and a crescent, whilst the other is white and is covered with drops of gold, with a sun in their midst.

Her loose sleeves, garnished with emeralds and birds' plumes, exposes to view her little, rounded arms, adorned at the wrists with bracelets of ebony; and her hands, covered with rings, are terminated by nails so pointed that the ends of her fingers are almost like needles.

A chain of plate gold, passing under her chin, runs along her cheeks till it twists itself in spiral fashion around her head, over which blue powder is scattered; then, descending, it slips over her shoulders and is fastened above her bosom by a diamond scorpion, which stretches out its tongue between her breasts. From her ears hang two great white pearls. The edges of her eyelids are painted black. On her left cheek-bone she has a natural brown spot, and when she opens her mouth she breathes with difficulty, as if her bodice distressed her.

As she comes forward, she swings a green parasol with an ivory handle surrounded by vermilion bells; and twelve curly negro boys carry the long train of her robe, the end of which is held by an ape, who raises it every now and then.

She says:

"Ah! handsome hermit! handsome hermit! My heart is faint! By dint of stamping with impatience my heels have grown hard, and I have split one of[Pg 33] my toe-nails. I sent out shepherds, who posted themselves on the mountains, with their bands stretched over their eyes, and searchers, who cried out your name in the woods, and scouts, who ran along the different roads, saying to each passer-by: 'Have you seen him?'

"At night I shed tears with my face turned to the wall. My tears, in the long run, made two little holes in the mosaic-work—like pools of water in rocks—for I love you! Oh! yes; very much!"

She catches his beard.

"Smile on me, then, handsome hermit! Smile on me, then! You will find I am very gay! I play on the lyre, I dance like a bee, and I can tell many stories, each one more diverting than the last.

Sons and Lovers

File: c05923bb722753a5e3fc384994c94e90.jpg (66KB, 427x600px) Image search: [Google]

66KB, 427x600px

>>9466699
>>9466700
both of these look interesting, thank you so much

Serbs and Greeks.

>>9466635
Maybe I should have rec'd something more specific. I read The Mountain Wreath, it was mentioned here often. It's an epic written as a play. Was breddy gud desu.

>>9466631
Gogol

>>9466530
All Kafka's novels were unfinished yet they're fantastic. I read Soseki's Meian which is unfinished and loved it. Gogol's Dead Souls was unfinished, but still an amazing read.

File: gardenofeden.jpg (23KB, 300x438px) Image search: [Google]

23KB, 300x438px

I can't think of anything I read that unfinished. But I was wondering if anyone has read pic related. The only Hemingway longer story I've read is The Old Man and The Sea.

>>9466559

Add 2666 to that list

>>9466494
I genuinely think Homer's works are the ancient equivalent of superhero movies. They're not deep. They're just fun. Ancient Greece fetishists project way more onto his works than is actually there.

Tons of em OP. I read lots of classics when i was too young but still enjoyed them. Its almost like porn to read some writers when youre young. Hyper adult worlds and all.

>>9466542
>something fun cannot be deep
>something deep cannot be fun

The whole scene of Priam's plea to Achilles is an example of how the Iliad is, among other things, a moving, beautiful poem. Read more and develop poetic sensibility.

>>9466348
The original version

>>9466372
Thank you anyone else?

>>9468045
Minford

>>9465922
He was a genius poet, a beautiful soul, a complete qt, and the world didn't deserve him so he died

>>9465922
Twinks, they're all mentally unstable

Protestantism taken to its logical, awful conclusion.

>>9465905
he cuts his own nuts off and I didn't even notice
hahahahaha

Where does one start with Gaddis? Is it best to go chronologically?

>>9466068
chronological is literally never bad.

>>9465827
Bryce's is unironically the best

Caslon.

>>9465827
comic sans

>>9465803
Nah. I've done the thing of reading a Project Gutenberg file first to see whether I'd like the book, then getting a hard copy for the ones I did.

>>9465813
I'm on Project Gutenberg right now, but I can't find a specific book. I've tried libgen but they don't have it there, do you know of any other website ?

>>9465825
How about you mention the book, senpai?

Clarissa

I recently bought Clarissa

>>9465861
How is it?

File: 1493959881872.jpg (404KB, 2048x1536px) Image search: [Google]

404KB, 2048x1536px

Recently picked up a few of these, including based Southern's new book

Thoughts?

I prefer keep it simple. Just notepad already suits me.

>>9465489
It's probably a matter of comfort over practicality that makes me compelled to use something like Word rather than notepad. It "feels" to simple and seems like not enough.

>>9465481

Check out LibreOffice