bellsduckquack's review against another edition

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3.0

The book has an interesting take on the translation of literature and how this changes it’s meanings. However, I often found myself not being able to appreciate the differences in meaning as I am only able to read the English and Chinese translations. Hence, I feel like I could not appreciate the real differences.

tronella's review against another edition

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4.0

Great concept, occasionally frustrating execution.

bellsquack's review against another edition

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3.0

The book has an interesting take on the translation of literature and how this changes it’s meanings. However, I often found myself not being able to appreciate the differences in meaning as I am only able to read the English and Chinese translations. Hence, I feel like I could not appreciate the real differences.

justy_sto's review

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3.0

Only a translator can enjoy stories repeatedly translated into a few different languages which is the case of this book. 12 stories and around 60 different versions of them, followed by comments on translations by each author.
The strange thing is with some of the stories it felt like the story keeps being repeated in the same tone, pace or words (I didn't like it), and in other stories, some liberties are freely taken so that the story transforms into a completely different one (didn't like it either). There's only a few stories in this book that were changed, added or subtracted from in a way of still keeping the original voice. The rest can only be described as attempts. And the favorite story turned out to be by Arabian author, untranslated into English as of yet.
Good book for dipping in and out, not good for continuous reading.

nelkku's review

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3.0

It feels like this whole book is one big, sincere plea to please pay your translators a living wage. (which, yeah. Translation is hard. Please pay your translators a living wage.)
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