don@allegra.UUCP (D. Mitchell) (08/06/84)
Borges says the best English version of Don Quixote is by Garnier. However, I can't tell if he means the name of the translater or the name of a publishing company. He makes the astounding statement that when he finally read the original Spanish, it seemed like a poor translation from English. This from one of the foremost Spanish speaking authors of our time.
susan@metheus.UUCP (Susan Johnson) (08/08/84)
Re: the comment that Borges said that reading *Don Quixote* in Spanish
was like reading a poor translation from English:
I seem to recall the author of *The Old Patagonian Express* (a travel
book for railway buffs) meeting Borges in Argentina. According to him,
Borges praised English for its poetic flexibility, and bemoaned the rigid
structure of Spanish. He did not seem to have high regard for Espanol...
[And now to change the subject...]
I am a tech writer, and I enjoy *good* books on English usage.# One I've
enjoyed recently (as much for the title as the content) is *Miss
Thistlebottom's Hobgoblins* by Theodore Berstein of the NY Times.
[Miss Thistlebottom is, of course, your 8th grade English teacher who
drilled into your head certain inviolable rules of grammer that you may
NEVER NEVER NEVER break (for example, splitting infinitives). Berstein
offers a guide to "Taboos, Bugbears, and Outmoded Usages of English".]
# My definition of "good" is readable and entertaining as well as
informative. Anybody else know of some good usage books? (I'm at
work and away from my library, so the other titles I'm familiar with
have slipped my mind.)
Susan Johnson {whoever talks to Tek}!tektronix!ogcvax!metheus!susan