Ever since I first read it in 2000,I have been a fan of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's
Le Petit Prince. Not only do I find its messages to be ones worth considering, I have long used it as a means of comparing translations and to teach myself how to read, albeit just a teeny-tiny bit in some cases, other languages. Below are pictures of 13 editions that I currently own in print (the final picture shows the cover of the 14th, which shipped from Pakistan earlier this week), as well as other editions that I managed to get as e-books.
I'll list the languages in the captions, then briefly state whether or not I was able to understand the dialogue without the help of another edition/dictionary.
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Serbian and French editions |
I now know enough Serbian as to be able to understand the gist of the chapters. The French I understood probably 80-90% of the sentences without needing any assistance.
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Most recent English translation and Spanish edition |
Both of these I understood completely with no need of any assistance (I would hope so for my native and second languages!).
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German and Italian editions |
I'm rusty with my German, so I probably only got about 50-60% comprehension unaided. The Italian was better, at around the same rate as the French, maybe slightly higher.
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Latin and Irish Gaelic editions |
I had two years of college Latin and I understood almost all of it without assistance. The Irish, however, I could only understand a few words here and there and I depended upon other editions to read it.
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Hindi and Hungarian editions |
I only received the Hindi translation today, but considering that I don't even know the alphabet yet, I will need a lot of study before I can compare it to other editions. I only know a few words in Hungarian, so I read this one while alternating sentences with other editions.
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Catalan and Portuguese editions |
I needed no assistance in understanding either of these translations.
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Zulu translation |
I learned a few words while comparing this to another translation, but by itself, no comprehension at all.
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Basque translation |
See above.
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Quechua translation |
I knew a few words in Quechua, but that was about it. Read in tandem with another translation.
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Lithuanian edition |
Very surprisingly, I understood about 10-20% of what I was reading, but I still needed lots of assistance.
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Russian edition |
Just as surprising was my realization that I understood over a quarter of what I read before I compared it to another translation.
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Romanian edition |
Unlike other Romance language editions, I needed some help in understanding it, but I did understand about 40-50% of the passages unaided.
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Polish translation |
Out of the Slavic languages I read, Polish was by far the hardest for me. Full assistance needed.
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Venetian edition |
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The Venetian translation is so close in places to standard Italian that I had little difficulty in understanding it unaided.
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Czech translation |
The Czech translation was surprisingly easy for me; I understood almost as much as the Serbian and I hadn't ever really looked at that language!
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Brazilian Portuguese edition |
I found the Brazilian Portuguese edition to be easier than the Portuguese one, plus it seemed to be more faithful to the original French.
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Urdu translation |
I'm still awaiting my copy, but I know I'll need assistance, as while I know most of the Perso-Arabic alphabet, there's a lot more to learn before I could even hope to do comparisons of words with other translations.
2 comments:
Is there an Esperanto translation? That could be fun to compare.
You also should add the Scandinavian languages and Greek to your collection. :-)
There is, but it'll be a while before I buy it. Others are also future buys. Want at least one from each I-E branch.
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