Edit - Literature Stack Exchange

You are not logged in. Your edit will be placed in a queue until it is peer reviewed.

We welcome edits that make the post easier to understand and more valuable for readers. Because community members review edits, please try to make the post substantially better than how you found it, for example, by fixing grammar or adding additional resources and hyperlinks.

Just intrigued -- why do translations age more than the original works? In other words, why is a new translation of a book more necessary every (fifty years) than a new rendering in the original language?
– Chaim
Commented Jul 25, 2017 at 14:30
@Chaim A good question, one that probably deserves a page of its own rather than as a comment to an answer. A quick, partial answer is that the ideas of what a translation should accomplish should change, and that the language of a translation seems to age much faster than original works.
– andejons
Commented Jul 25, 2017 at 15:03
2

I think readers are more willing to face challenging language in originals rather than in translations. Lots of people read Shakespeare, but how many are willing to read Don Quixote written in Shakespearean English when there's a much more faithful translation into modern English?
– Peter Shor
Commented Dec 9, 2020 at 2:10

Add a comment |

Correct minor typos or mistakes
Clarify meaning without changing it
Add related resources or links
Always respect the author’s intent
Don’t use edits to reply to the author

create code fences with backticks ` or tildes ~
```
like so
```
add language identifier to highlight code
```python
def function(foo):
print(foo)
```
put returns between paragraphs
for linebreak add 2 spaces at end
_italic_ or **bold**
quote by placing > at start of line
to make links (use https whenever possible)
<https://example.com>
[example](https://example.com)
<a href="https://example.com">example</a>

formatting help »
answering help »