Twice the Books

Perks of being fluent in two languages? Twice the books to read and twice the songs to listen to.

I love not being dependent on translations. First of all, very few (or maybe none) of my favourite Romanian books would be available in English. It’s sad that other people can’t enjoy them, but at least I can.

Then, I strongly believe that translations are completely different books. A few months ago I read The Odyssey translated by Fagles. Our teachers presented us with other translations too - some older, some newer. Every translation could be read in a different way. The author used a word for a reason and the translator used another word for whatever reason he considered the author used it for. Do you get what I’m saying? Emily Wilson is the first woman who translated The Odyssey to English in 2018 and her version shines a completely new light on the text.

For these reasons, I want to learn French properly. I know a little, but not enough to read something serious and so I would have three times the books to read.