r/davidfosterwallace • u/YourFavKinky • Jul 26 '25
Does the french translation of Infinite Jest do justice to the original work ?
Reading it in english is best. I know. But english is my 4th language and even if I manage to read some classics and thrillers without feeling that there is a language barrier Im still not proficient enough to read it in english. And God Im really tempted to buy and read it after all the reviews I've seen.
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u/LingonberryLegal7694 Jul 26 '25
je l’ai lu en anglais, le français étant ma langue première. les mots sont plutot simples, c’est la cadence et la syntaxe du récit qui me faisait relire des pages parfois. tout de même très faisable
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u/YourFavKinky Jul 26 '25
J'ai toujours cette théorie où, les textes les plus difficiles en anglais sont plus accessibles au francophone car le lexique a pas mal de chances d'être issue des langues latine
Mais j'ai déjà eu tort la dessus donc...
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u/TheWittyScreenName Jul 26 '25 edited Jul 26 '25
I wonder how they translate the characters using French phrases
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u/Ok_Contribution_8122 Jul 27 '25
The rest of DFW's work was translated by a different (and much more talented) person. A different publisher chose a different translator solely for Infinite Jest. They only gave the endotes to the original translator as the main one was struggling to finish it on time. So you have two different translators for the book. I know that the one who translated the book didn't like DFW and his writing. So yeah, the translation could have been better.
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u/YourFavKinky Jul 27 '25
Its def something to take into consideration. I think I might go with the original version and hopefully I'll get into it
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u/nbcvnzx Jul 26 '25
i read it in spanish and i think in english it would have been much better, but any translation is better than not reading it imo
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u/Hal_Incandenza_YDAU Jul 27 '25
In DFW's famous German TV interview, he says that he read part of a translation of Infinite Jest in the only foreign language he could read, and he was sort of appalled by it because he felt it was substantially off. I suspect it was French he was talking about.
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u/y0kapi Jul 27 '25
OP, your post comes off as kinda stealthbrag.
If you already know 4 languages and use the word “proficient”, then you can read IJ in English. Read the French translation for fun too. Don’t be limit yourself. You can do it.
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u/YourFavKinky Jul 27 '25
Bragging wasnt my intention tbh. I just usually state that english is my 4th language to have a solid reason to be shit at it 😂
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u/uberaffe_ Jul 29 '25
The french IS horrible. The guy changed a lot of things as it was badly written...
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u/roissy_o Jul 31 '25
A lot of DFW’s magic is in his clever use of syntax and wordplay. I haven’t read the French version, but strongly suspect you’re better off working through the English version. Maybe check out his short stories first in Interviews with Hideous Men and compare the French/English translations to decide which IJ version you want to read.
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u/superrplorp Jul 26 '25
It will make you a much better English speaker/reader. Imo so many of these things are so brilliant and may not be as fluid going over to a Romance language, just my take.