Laughably Bad Prose

>>8780795
>translations

>>8780795
>Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly on the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned softly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.

>>8780795
That literally couldn't be more straightforward

>>8780795
Why is this bad prose?

>>8780803
Fuck you

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>>8780795
>So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

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>>8780829

I can never tell if you fucks want the point to be further obfuscated by metaphors or more blunt.

>>8781237
Plebs feel intelligent when they read flowery prose or something obscure, even though they can't comprehend the simplest of passages

Alone. One love. One hope. One comfort me. Martha, chestnote, return!

—Come!

It soared, a bird, it held its flight, a swift pure cry, soar silver orb it leaped serene, speeding, sustained, to come, don't spin it out too long long breath he breath long life, soaring high, high resplendent, aflame, crowned, high in the effulgence symbolistic, high, of the etherial bosom, high, of the high vast irradiation everywhere all soaring all around about the all, the endlessnessnessness...

—To me!

Siopold!

>>8781491
Is Joyce the literary equivalent of free jazz?

>>8781500
seems like a good comparison to me.

>>8781500
Free jazz is bad while Joyce is good.

that ain't bad prose

>>8781500
I misread you as free jizz at first, and now I'm just curious what kind of writing that would describe.

>>8781588
Burroughs.

>>8781549
exact opposite is the case tbqh

>>8780795
>Winding his way to his brother's lodging he lost his way in thought. Turning the last corner he realized just how weakened with hunger he'd become. Finding a moment against a wall he pulled the pilfered roll from his father's plate. The meager meal did his strength well enough

I don't know what story this is from. Translated someone said? Did my best

>>8780803
This is pretty bad.

>>8781491
Chestnote isn't even a word

>>8781491
fuck yourself that line is GOAT

the best Philip Larkin poem owes a huge debt to it too.

>>8781784
It's just gibberish lol

>>8780805
>>8780808

If you seriously can't tell how terrible that prose is, it's time for you to pick a new hobby. Browsing reddit maybe.

>>8781916
Upvoted

>>8781549
>free jazz is bad
https://youtu.be/49ICNSx-b-E?t=18m42s

>>8781718
Nice!

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>>8781491
He kissed the plump mellow yellow smellow melons of her rump, on each plump melonous hemisphere, in their mellow yellow furrow, with obscure prolonged provocative melonsmellonous osculation.

>>8782106
Thanks :D

>>8781718
The Brothers Karamazov

>>8782635
Okay, but did he indeed "pilfer" the roll?
Was he nervous about seeing Dimitri?
I imagined snow for reason.
What could he have thought about and what his name was also eluded me, so I didn't want to make it up.

>>8781747
Kill yourself

>>8781929
That's bad.

Really, all jazz is bad.

>>8780829
Ahh, I love that line
Beat, boats, borne, back sound nice.
It has a good rhythm.
Current works with both meanings of the word.
Not every line Fitzy wrote was good, but I enjoyed this one

>>8781549
>>8782845
correct

>>8781665
>>8781929
consider suicide, then suicide.

>>8782910
It's so good it's probably Zelda's.

>>8782679
He took the role after meeting his father, more just taking a snack for the road than pilfering. As I recall I don't think he was nervous, as Dmitri was his brother, just cautious of how he would find him. Snow would be correct. I can't remember whether it's Ivan or Alyosha that's being described, but I'm inclined to say Alyosha as he has a greater relationship with Dmitri throughout the novel. Alyosha was a 'monk' also, so pilfering would have been doubly inaccurate.

>>8784459
it's alyosha. would know, just finished it last week.

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>>8781549
>>8782845
>>8782967
You guys are just jealous you haven't got the SOUL to enjoy this stuff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnvSfW2xjMI

A note before I go in is simply that translators aren't just there to make the writer look good, but to convey the authors style and tone in another language as accurately as they can.

I remember reading something that said that it's well known in academic circles that Dostoyevsky wasn't a great prose writer like Kafka or Proust. Anyone who has read his work will agree that aesthetic value takes a back seat compared with the discussion and development of ideas.

But a point to discuss about Dostoyevsky's work is that it never really intended to be mind-boggling in style. His writing isn't what you would expect from someone of his reputation, but it is clear and concise and everything else it needs to be to convey his ideas. This aspect has perhaps exacerbated his legacy through his translations as something written that simplistically doesn't lose much when translated from Russian to English.


Russian is a difficult language to translate into English. The languages in Western Europe and, for the most part, in the same family or extended family trees. (Dont talk to me about romantic languages. Old French had just as much of an influence on English of Old German. English isn't purely a Germanic Language.)

Think about it. When an English speaker reads ab English work translated from German or French or any of the other major languages world literature comes in, it's easy to get a feel for that authors style. This is because the word and sentence structures (once you move around a few verb and adjectives and indefinite articles) among Western European languages are closely related.

Read Kafka and tell me you don't get a sense of what has to be one of the most unique and influential writing styles in all of world literature. Tell me the last page of the Trial doesn't absolutely take your breathe away.

Now go read some Chekhov or Tolstoy or Gogol. Yes, the themes and ideas intertwined in the narrative are going to come through. But what about what doesn't? When the narrative moves from the tangible to the abstract, are pure evocation of the moment going to survive across with it. Surely some of it will, and surely some of it won't.

Look at Dead Souls. Gogol is considered one of the great writers of the Russian language. They say his skill is comparable with maybe two or three Russian writers since. They say it, of course, because any one whose ever only read Gogol through a translation will know that it read awkwardly. The phrases are clunky and the actual phonetic system holding them up sounds unnatural.

It may be that I read a bad translation. I have too many books I want to read to read the same book twice. But I see the same thing with Bulgakov and Tolstoy and Chekhov. The translations just aren't written well.

I couldn't honestly say whether or not Dostoyevsky is good or bad because I haven't read him in Russian. But from what I had read, I don't see much of a difference between that prose and the prose from other Russian translations.

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>>8783007
underrated post