Books not translated into your native language

[anna3101]

Are there books that you wish were translated into your native language?

I have a lot of those. There are some excellent fiction and nonfiction books that I've read in English that I really enjoyed and I'm pretty sure my Polish and Russian friend would love too. Unfortunately, not all of them speak English, and the books have never been (and probably will never be) translated into Russian/Polish.

Each time I keep thinking - why does it happen? Why so many really rubbish stuff gets to have a professional translation, but so many wonderful books never get the chance?

Do you also have the same problem or is it easy to find the books you read in your native language's version?

[Baburra]

For me, not really, because  prefer reading in English than in my native language. Not that I'm against my own language as I do appreciate it for what it is but our words are very elongated that it sometimes become very tiresome to read lengthy books entirely written in our language. Not to mention that there is an odd dynamic wherein a lot of our proper words are considered too ancient and outdated by now but there is no modern counterpart to take their place so we don't have much choice other than to use these outdated terms that sound very out of place or we just use English as a placeholder but maybe just change the spelling a little to fit our language better, at which point I think there's not much of a reason to not just put the text completely in English already. 

[Topically Different]

I've never run into this problem but I've sometimes questioned the actual quality of the translation, especially for more techinical titles like Neuromancer or Snow Crash. I've also preferred to read those in English, because the cheesiness of the various translated technical terms would actually take me out of the book. Plus I think I never stop learning English anyway.

[darkchild]

I cannot even read my native language so well, so I am grateful for the English books all around me. But recently, I have started familiarizing myself with my native movies and exposing myself to words that I never understood; everything is coming to light now.

[BabelGoldFish]

Professional translator here there are several things at play

Publishing houses are gonna want to publish proven titles: best sellers guaranteed to make a lot of money, not just because they've been tested on the American/UK market already but also because of the Internet and social media buzz they will have already.

This means quality isn't measured, popularity is...after all, publishing is a business, and a business's prime directive is making money, not publishing obscure but Nobel prize worthy books.

Where I live very little national authors ever make it, since it's so much safer to translate best sellers than to invest in a new talent that may or may not sell. This means a lot of potentially great books never see the light of day. :/ 

[FenWoFon]

Well, until now, every single book I've read has been in my native language, however the translation of some words and phrases are not even close to what they really mean, that is kinda odd but wh ocares, I still enjoy the books

[Tömk]

  On 3/25/2016 at 6:11 AM, Baburra said:

For me, not really, because  prefer reading in English than in my native language. Not that I'm against my own language as I do appreciate it for what it is but our words are very elongated that it sometimes become very tiresome to read lengthy books entirely written in our language. Not to mention that there is an odd dynamic wherein a lot of our proper words are considered too ancient and outdated by now but there is no modern counterpart to take their place so we don't have much choice other than to use these outdated terms that sound very out of place or we just use English as a placeholder but maybe just change the spelling a little to fit our language better, at which point I think there's not much of a reason to not just put the text completely in English already. 

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And what is your native language?

[宇崎ちゃん]

There are lots of books not being translated into Dutch or Polish, but I don't mind it since I am reading English more often than Dutch and Polish combined on a daily basis any way.

[rz3300]

Well there are several books that I have come across that seemed very interesting and that I wanted to read, or at least browse through, but unfortunately they were in other languages and so I did not get that opportunity, or I had to resort to other people translating it or interpreting it for me, which is a little frustrating sometimes.  Most of them were politically oriented, just given my career and academic path, and the ones that come to mind are the writing of Frantz Fanon.  Some have been translated but others have not, and I wish I could read those.

[takibari]

English in the Philippines is considered a second language. Thus, most Filipinos at least understand English. Even though our population can speak and understand English, there is also a part of the population that prefers reading in Filipino (Tagalog). The OPs question made me curious if there are ever books translated in our native language. Off the top of my head, there's none. I guess most publishers think that the Tagalog-speaking market is not so great enough for them to spend money on translating English titles to the local tongue. What's popular in our country NOW though is the translation of U.S. TV series into Tagalog. Currently, a big network is showing Jane The Virgin and it's shown as a Tagalized version or dubbed in Tagalog. I so love the humor of this show, but when I saw an episode of it as a Tagalog-dubbed episode, the humor just wasn't there.

[VinayaSpeaks]

There are numerous books that I wish were translated to my native language. I wish One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Ulysses by James Joyce were translated to my native language. These two are a great fiction of 20th century. Among non-fiction, Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl is my favorite book.This book is based on a research by a doctor in Hitler's Concentration camp. I wish this was translated to my native language.

[lecanard7]

I don't have this problem very much because I am a native English speaker. However I do wish more of Jules Verne's works were translated into English. He's a French author and his books are just a little too complicated for me to read. The translated ones I have read are really enjoyable though. Except for one that was VERY BADLY translated.