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Viktimoj (Victims), by Julio Baghy | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Esperanto |  | |
| dmaddock1 Senior Member United States Joined 5437 days ago 174 posts - 426 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Esperanto, Latin, Ancient Greek | Message 1 of 5 10 June 2010 at 7:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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What interested me most when I first heard about Esperanto was its supposed body of original literature. When I did some research I certainly found that this was true, but couldn't really get a sense of it beyond lists of book titles and names of authors. Apparently, very little has been translated into English.
Finally, I know enough of the language to read some myself. Currently, I am reading Baghy's Viktimoj and love it. I decided to translate the first chapter both as an exercise for myself, but also so that people who don't know any Esperanto can get a little glimpse of it through my (hopefully not too stilted) prose. Link I'd love to get some feedback on my work if anyone happens to also have this book. I'm still mulling over the best way to express some Eo idioms (marked in yellow)--most notably, "samsortanoj." I'm still not very far into the book so some of my wording may not fit the themes of the novel yet. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| dmaddock1 Senior Member United States Joined 5437 days ago 174 posts - 426 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Esperanto, Latin, Ancient Greek | Message 2 of 5 18 June 2010 at 5:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, my last post was so popular... ;-)
Here's a nice little exchange between Johano and Katja (the wife of one of the Russian leaders): Chapter 3 (p. 41) —Ĉu vi vidas, sinjorina moŝto, tiel ni mensogas al ni mem por luli nin en iluzioj, ĉar la realon forrabis de ni la vivo. —Kaj eĉ se la vivo etendas al vi la realon, vi preferas la koturnojn. Jen viaj tragedioj,—diris ŝi kun malgaja rideto. —Jes! Ja! Komuna sorto de la militkaptitoj. —Sed ne ĉiuj estas revuloj. —So you see how we lie to ourselves in order to lull ourselves with illusions, because reality stole away our life. —And even if life offers you reality, you prefer the delusion. Here are your tragedies,—she said with a sad smile. —Yes! Indeed! The common destiny of the captive. —But we are not all dreamers. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5673 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin | Message 3 of 5 18 June 2010 at 5:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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I am happy to hear that you like it, but this is the kind of literature that actually turned me off Esperanto. To me, at least, the story is painfully over written - trying too hard to be dramatic. This highly poetic style seems very popular among Esperanto enthusiasts, but I for one find it very off putting.
Have you come across Esperanto literature that is much crisper, less flowery, and is actually gripping? Something like The Old Man and the Sea would be perfect for somebody of my tastes and would help switch me back to learning Esperanto again. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| dmaddock1 Senior Member United States Joined 5437 days ago 174 posts - 426 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Esperanto, Latin, Ancient Greek | Message 4 of 5 18 June 2010 at 5:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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Ha, that's a fair criticism from what I've read so far. Baghy is definitely not the Esperanto Hemingway! I haven't read enough different authors to give an informed opinion, but I haven't come across the sort of prose you mean yet. It seems to me that Esperanto hasn't yet been around long enough to develop a sect of "reactionary minimalists" like Hemingway, but I'd like to be proven wrong. I like Hemingway, but I think he sometimes suffers from the inverse of what you criticize Baghy for.
My plan is to work my way through Auld's list of prose. I'll post here if I come across something that seems to fit the bill. As Jack London wrote in The Call of the Wild,
I've been enjoying what I've read so far, but it has definitely been too self-aware to attain that state London speaks of. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6443 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 5 of 5 22 June 2010 at 6:28pm | IP Logged | ||
Have you tried Tibor Sekelj? He is not much like Hemingway, but he does not tend to suffer from a surfeit of artifice. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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