Submitted by Cautious-Bid-8117 t3_zz1zsd in books
bibliophile222 t1_j29c1t7 wrote
What do you mean by a bilingual book? Do you mean one that uses multiple languages in the writing, or one that's a side-by-side translation, or just one that's not in your native language? I've read all three, but my answers would change depending on which one you mean.
Cautious-Bid-8117 OP t1_j29cmwk wrote
>By bilingual book I meant a book in two languages which is composed by the original version of the text and its traduction in another language. Parallel text book for exemple :) It allows the texts to be compared by the reader
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>(but I am interested too if you have some recommandation of books that uses multiple languages in the writing because I only know references for kids)
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>Thank you for your comment, I should precise next time !
bibliophile222 t1_j2aevh3 wrote
Got it! I've read Beowulf and Canterbury Tales this way. It's helpful for comparing Middle English (Canterbury Tales) and modern English - as a native English speaker, I can understand the gist of Middle English, but it's super helpful to have the side by side version for all the different vocab and grammatical structures so you don't always need to be glancing at footnotes or endnotes. I try to just read the Middle English and glance at the translation as needed. As far as Old English (Beowulf), much, much fewer words are understandable to a native English speaker, so I read the modern translation, but it's still really cool to have access to the Old English to get a sense of the sounds and poetic rhythms.
As far as books where the writer uses multiple languages, the best example I can think of is Finnegans Wake. It's nominally written in English but contains a mishmash of other languages to create multilingual wordplay. I've heard you need to understand 4 or 5 languages to really understand it without copious footnotes. Also, a lot of non-French classic novels have a fair amount of French in them because at the time most educated Americans, British, and other Europeans knew it. For instance, War and Peace has a lot of French dialogue.
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