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Draconifors

Draconifors

Moderator
#1,001
I've heard the English translations are not particularly good, and due to that I don't plan to get my hands on any.

Whereas the translation of the books I have read is really good; not that I know how much has been lost in translation, but I've read enough books to know good work when I see it. Plus, the translator has received awards for his translations of Polish literature (more than just this one series).

The books are why I played the games, and ultimately why I'm on this forum.
 

Guest 3847602

Guest
#1,002
incomingdamage said:
You poor souls, robbed of the blessing of reading the Witcher books in polish :p
Click to expand...
I've read them in Serbian and I thought the translation was great. Pretty similar languages, many idioms translate word-for-word. I even compared it with some excerpts from Polish audiobooks, and yeah, it's almost the same.
Of course, nothing beats the original, but I'm quite pleased with our translation. Same with Hussite Trilogy - you can immediately recognize Sapkowski's style of writing.
 
SigilFey

SigilFey

Moderator
#1,003
The initial 2 (or 3?) book translations into English were...just...bad. (Sorry. [Not sorry.]) They were lazy. There was no attempt to capture nuance in tone and mood. There was no thought to making idiomatic speech pop in other languages. The first ventures were a prime example of what rushing the job or electing the the lowest bidder will result in.

Later translations are very good. I don't have the very first book which referred to Ciri as a "Surprise Child" anymore. I bought that in Dubai in the early 2000s. I do still have the version I bought later that refers to her as an "Unexpected Child". It's still my go-to example of how vastly important it is to hire good writers to translate your writing is. Trouble is, you'll never be able to tell how well or how poorly an author is doing unless you speak the language they're translating into. Fluently. At which point...what the hell -- just stonewall the publishers into hiring you and translate it yourself.

But...

...end result is that the most recent translations in English are great. What I think most people might be in for a shock with is that Sapkowski's universe doesn't deal with Tolkien-esk high-fantasy. It deals with a beleagured world forgotten by time and space and left to wallow in near-despair no matter what they "seem" to achieve. Harsh, dark, and gritty. More fatalistic than real life, perhaps...but definitely alluring on a "human-vice" scale.
 
pinoko

pinoko

Moderator
#1,004
Now I've finally started reading the Tower of Fools.
Thanks to Sapkowski (and KCD:p), I get interested in the history of medieval Europe and get to know who Zawisza Czarny is. That's something.
However, the name of locations or characters like Apeczko of Stercza or Jentsch of Knobelsdorf is not easy to pronounce for Japanese. To be honest, don't know how to pronounce actually, which happened to TWS as well. When I saw Hen Gedymdeith in "Blood of Elves", I was like... "Hen GGGGggg... what?" and still am.XD But this kind of obstacles, so to speak, are also fun and enjoying myself. Sapkowski's book is so thrilling.
 

Guest 3847602

Guest
#1,006
pinoko said:
However, the name of locations or characters like Apeczko of Stercza or Jentsch of Knobelsdorf is not easy to pronounce for Japanese.
Click to expand...
"cz" in Apeczko of Stercza and "sch" in Jentsch of Knobelsdorf are both pronounced as "ch" in Witcher. You probably know it already, but I'll say it just in case - "J" in Jentsch is pronounced as "Y" in Yennefer.
 
Maranares

Maranares

Forum regular
#1,007
I recently picked up again the Lone Wolf saga by Joe Dever. For those unfamiliar with it, it's a fantasy gamebook series, focusing on the story of the sole survivor of an ancient order of warriors monks, called the "Kai lords". It's your typical run-of-the-mill fantasy "Good vs. Evil" tale, but the fact that you can choose your path makes for a thrilling experience, at least for me.

I used to read/play a lot of these things as a kid, so certainly nostalgia has something to do with me still liking it this much. Nevertheless, it will keep me very occupied since it's a 30+ books-long saga.

Plus, the difficulty is punishing in the first books. Death (and having to restart from page 1) is always around the corner in the land of Sommerlund...
 
Draconifors

Draconifors

Moderator
#1,008
David Baldacci's King and Maxwell. Baldacci is one of my favourite authors, and these two characters (Sean King and Michelle Maxwell) are excellent.

The book's events take place after the events of the previous book in the series, The Sixth Man, which I also own and really like.
The books are long (500+ pages), which is always nice.

Crime is the genre.
 
incomingdamage

incomingdamage

Forum regular
#1,009
Some polish tongue-twisters ;) :
W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie.
Stół z powyłamywanymi nogami.
Szedł Sasza suchą szosą podczas suszy.
Choć nie śnieży, śnieg wciąż świeży.
Król Karol kupił królowej Karolinie korale koloru koralowego.
 
Q

quintivarium

Senior user
#1,010
To a non-Polish speaker, the entire language looks like a tongue twister. How do you pronounce seven consecutive consonants?
 
CubbyTheKid

CubbyTheKid

Fresh user
#1,012
Haven't made my mind up on the books yet. The Last Wish has been pretty enjoyable, but Geralt's voice sometimes leaves me with the impression of a wise, fearless, justice-serving protagonist that's a one-dimensional mouthpiece for the author's own philosophizing. That could be easily be a translation issue. I'm going to keep reading though.
 
incomingdamage

incomingdamage

Forum regular
#1,013
quintivarium said:
To a non-Polish speaker, the entire language looks like a tongue twister. How do you pronounce seven consecutive consonants?
Click to expand...
Hm, we don't have any words with seven consonants in a row as far as I know :) The longest set of consecutive consonants in a word would be between 3 and 4: szcz, drz, trz, wsz, szt and so on. With more than that there are always some vowels in between.
"sz" - you can pronounce it like "sh" in the word "wash"
"cz" - you can pronounce it like "tch" in the word "watch"
"rz" - can't find a direct equivalent in english right now, but you can hear the same thing in words like "measure" or "leisure"

That's all for today's lesson :D;)
 
ThorgerWolff

ThorgerWolff

Forum regular
#1,016
Ahriman is a significant figure of Persian mythology. Rudolf Steiner, however, spoke of Ahriman as an actual, living spiritual entity. This being, he said, works to embed human beings firmly into their physicality, thus encouraging dull, materialistic attitudes and a coarse, dry intellect.

The Incarnation of Ahriman: The Embodiment of Evil on Earth: Seven Lectures Given Between October and December 1919

In these extraordinary lectures, Steiner assumes a rare prophetic mode. He talks about an actual incarnation of Ahriman on Earth and the potential consequences of this event. Just as Christ incarnated in a physical body, so would Ahriman incarnate in the Western world―before “a part” of the third millennium has passed.​

 

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