> And I say, the Greek stuff can be pretty boring
That's because you're only reading the boring ones! Aristophanes is still funny and very worth reading today for a typical person, in my opinion.
That's because you're only reading the boring ones! Aristophanes is still funny and very worth reading today for a typical person, in my opinion.
I took Ancient Greek in college, and toward the end of the term was reading "The Clouds" in the original. And it was incredibly funny. But I've never found a non-boring translation.
Which led me to suspect that a lot of the modern rejection of classics comes more from the culture and norms of classical scholars' translations than from anything in the works themselves.
(a similar problem is known to have happened more recently with Dumas' "Three Musketeers", which suffered from English translators whose prudishness cut out a lot of fun bits from the original French)
For example, Japanese wordplay doesn't always translate very well to other languages. Since so much of the wordplay relies on similar pronunciation between two words.
私は「今は何時ですか？」ってネコに尋ねました。「ニャぁニャぁ」が返事しました。
"I asked the cat 'what time is it now?' The cat replied 'meow meow'."
Translators note: The Japanese pronunciation for 7 is "なな (nana)" which sounds like ニャアニャア (nyaa nyaa), which is the Japanese onomatopoeia for a cat's meow. I'm not sure if having the cat respond "meow meow" or "seven" is more funny for the English translation. The joke works better in it's original language as the cat could also be responding with "seven".
I also came across this interesting article on Kurosawa's interpretation of Macbeth, http://www.academia.edu/3306558/Lost_in_Translation_Reconsid...
I suspect there is a lot lost in translation, which can be challenging when reading old texts.
A simple example from pop culture would be the Miku Hatsune concerts "39 Giving Day" where '39' sounds like 'thank you' in English and they play 39 songs. In the credits for the MikuFlick iOS game it says at the end "39 for playing!". It's a simple example of what you mean, but j-pop is rife with this. Visual imagery too, the official video for Morning Misume's An Adolescent Boy is Crying Again on youtube has a fan's explanation of the imagery used, it's honestly a good read. (video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtboKJ4D8zg but can't find the comment among the train-wreck that is YT comments). Posting MM video links on HN, what have I become? cries
So instead of forming Japanese words (proper 語呂合わせ ) I'll memorize a string of gibberish Japanese sounds.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diogenes_of_Sinope
It was in Corinth that a meeting between Alexander the Great and Diogenes is supposed to have taken place.[30] The accounts of Plutarch and Diogenes Laërtius recount that they exchanged only a few words: while Diogenes was relaxing in the sunlight in the morning, Alexander, thrilled to meet the famous philosopher, asked if there was any favour he might do for him. Diogenes replied, "Yes, stand out of my sunlight". Alexander then declared, "If I were not Alexander, then I should wish to be Diogenes", to which Diogenes replied, "If I were not Diogenes, I should also wish to be Diogenes."[31] In another account of the conversation, Alexander found the philosopher looking attentively at a pile of human bones. Diogenes explained, "I am searching for the bones of your father but cannot distinguish them from those of a slave."[32]