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From: Nick Rezmerski <rezm0001@gold.tc.umn.edu>
Subject: Re: Great Esperanto literature (was: Re: Esperanto? The EU?)
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Date: Sat, 25 Feb 1995 18:46:42 GMT
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On 21 Feb 1995 05:13:34 GMT, livesey@solntze.engr.sgi.com (Jon Livesey) wrote:
>
> In article <3i8q4d$hmr@lyra.csx.cam.ac.uk>, etg10@cl.cam.ac.uk (Edmund Grimley-Evans) writes:
> |> 
> |> > That's a pretty bad argument, since there are many writers who did not
> |> > write in English, but of whom most educated anglophones have heard
> |> > and recognize as great writers.
> |> 
> |> Few people would deny that whether a writer is well known and
> |> recognised as a great writer depends on the language in which they
> |> wrote. I read a good article that gave evidence of this phenomenon
> |> in the case of French and Dutch. It was observed that, while
> |> French poetry can be sold quite well in Dutch translation, comparable
> |> Dutch poetry can not easily be sold in French translation. This is
> |> because French is a language of prestige whereas Dutch isn't (at
> |> least in the minds of French speakers).
> 
> This is bait and switch time again, isn't it?   The original
> question is about who are the great writers in Esperanto, and
> why have we not heard of them.   And the response was
> 	
>     "This is a sort of cleft stick to be caught in. If I said, "Shakespeare, 
>     Tolstoy and Cervantes," would you then say that translated literature 
>     doesn't count? And if I said, "Auld, Kalocsay, Baghy and Miyamoto," 
>     would you then say that you'd never heard of them? (Which, since they 
>     wrote/write in Esperanto, would not be too surprising...)
> 
> Now I can accept that poetry originally written in language A might
> sell better in translation into language B than vice versa.   But
> that doesn't counter the reply that in reality there are plenty of
> authors who are well-known in translation, so why not Esperanto
> authors?
> 
> jon.

I think the reason is the numbers.  Not very many world-class writers
per language, and not as many Esperanto writers as natural-language
writers.  Since Esperanto has only been around a hundred-some years
and has a comparatively smaller body of speakers and writers, it will
be some time before we see volumes of internationally-recognizable
works in Esperanto.  Give it time.

The beauty of the situation is that as more people (and consequently
more writers) see the value of Esperanto, they bring their own writing
talents into the Esperanto fold.  There is no need for "Esperanto" to
produce a ton of world-class writing -- writers who expand from their
native tongues to Esperanto carry their literary ability along.

As for the quality of translated literature, that has more to do with
the skill of the translator than with the language of the original.

I don't have any illusions that I could ever get through all the
material that has already been translated into Esperanto; that is
fine with me.  As long as I never run out, I'll be happy.

  - Nick@Nite (Nikolaso on irc/#esperanto)
    rezm0001@gold.tc.umn.edu / University of Minnesota
    Miaj opinioj estas mia, ne de la Universitato de Minnesota.
    (Do ne rakontu al ili kion mi diris!)
