Forigite

Rather than someone translating Mein Kampf to share the ideas with others (I don't know of very many groups of skinhead Esperantists), the main facility I can see for translating it would be as part of a "Masterworks of Evil" series dedicated to documenting the pathology of Naziism and similar philosophies in order to guard against it ever happening again.

But you're right, there are a lot more interesting works out there to translate. Even if we just restricted ourselves to twentieth-century German literature, the Esperanto community would probably be more interested in works from writers like Erich Maria Remarque, Max Frisch, Wolfgang Borchert and Hermann Hesse. I think the first three would especially appeal to what I see as the Esperanto sense of trans-nationality with works like All Quiet On The Western Front and Biedermann and the Firebugs. I don't think Borchert is as well known outside Germany but after World War II he wrote quite a few pieces against war and antimilitarism such as The Drooping Geraniums and Say No! Hesse, well I don't know if he's as cool as he used to be back in the Sixties but he's still worth reading.

creedelambard:This all sounds like a job for a peer-rated review service where people can post their reviews of Esperanto texts, similar to the review services on sites like Amazon or Newegg. In fact there may be one and I'm just not aware of it.

I was thinking along similar lines. Rate the work by the quality and reading level of its Esperanto, giving the author a rating based upon the average rating of his or her works. It probably wouldn't be horrible to rate the editors as well. Being a fan of Creative Commons, I'd support releasing electronic editions for free under a CC License with dead tree versions at a price.

The chief problem would be one of interest. How many people would be willing to write? How many people would be willing to read and edit? How many people would be comfortable putting something out there for editting? The last bit is my problem. I love writting short stories and spend a modest amount of my free time doing it. But I don't feel comfortable in asking people to review it for me as it feels like pestering them to do work for no reason outside my own petty wants.

Hyperboreus:Undoubtly the complete works of Bioy Casares and Jorge Luis Borges. In my opinion, two of the best writers I have read so far (and I do quite a lot of reading).
Other authors that come to mind: Isaac Asimov, Terry Pratchett, Noam Chomsky, Arthur C. Clarke, Dante Alighieri, Platon, Cicero, John Milton, to name a few. And surely Humerto Eco.

Edit: And the dude who wrote "A Clockwork Orange". And "Stranger in a Strange Land" by Robert Heinlein.

+1 for all of these. (I'll take your word on Casares, who I'm not familiar with.) Especially Chomsky. Translating one of his books into Esperanto might show him that Esperanto is indeed a language, in spite of what he has said in the past.

+2 for Pratchett. Avinjo Vetervaks por la venko! (Given the deference she gets, translating "Granny" as "Avinjo" could be pretty ironic.) Although there are some things that might be a bit tough to get right, like the sign I ATEN'T DED that she puts on her chest when she's out Borrowing a hive of bees. And it might be tough translating "Mort," since the title character is named "Mort" but the novel is about Death, whose name would logically be translated "Morto." EDIT: Or maybe "La Morto." I'm not sure.

creedelambard:

+1 for all of these. (I'll take your word on Casares, who I'm not familiar with.) Especially Chomsky. Translating one of his books into Esperanto might show him that Esperanto is indeed a language, in spite of what he has said in the past.

I have a copy of Lingvo kaj menso by Noam Chomsky, but I don't know if any of his other works have been translated.

Vestitor:I think it's safe to assume that Mein Kampf is not likely to get a translation soon, for two main reasons:
1. It's an intensely boring book that only a person dedicated to sharing it further would be likely to undertake as a translation project.
2. I doubt very much that anyone bothering to read Mein Kampf is the sort of person pursuing Esperanto. It's not a certainty, but a likelihood.

Hmm, I'm not sure about that. . .

Regarding your first point, it's one of those works that is a "classic" and people have a desire to preserve it in the same sense that most people in the Western, democratic world think that "The Prince" or "The Communist Manifesto" is a classic and worth preserving.

And your second point relates to my first: I generally think of those pursuing Esperanto as being educated and well-read. As such, "Mein Kampf" strikes me as one of those books that everyone should read eventually just to be familiar with it from a historical perspective.

Forigite

SPX:
Hmm, I'm not sure about that. . .

Regarding your first point, it's one of those works that is a "classic" and people have a desire to preserve it in the same sense that most people in the Western, democratic world think that "The Prince" or "The Communist Manifesto" is a classic and worth preserving.

And your second point relates to my first: I generally think of those pursuing Esperanto as being educated and well-read. As such, "Mein Kampf" strikes me as one of those books that everyone should read eventually just to be familiar with it from a historical perspective.

Have you actually read Mein Kampf? I have and it simply doesn't stack up against the other two you mentioned. The Communist Manifesto is an interesting document historically, but it's also extremely well-written. Mein Kampf is historically interesting, but for different reasons, it's a curiosity. A 'classic' is a bit of a stretch as a description, the book has never been read for any literary merits nor for the wealth of its contents. It's like listening to a boring drunk in a pub paraphrasing the popular right-wing press. Why would Esperanto's literature need that?

Vestitor:
Have you actually read Mein Kampf?

I actually went to the bookstore just the other day to pick it up and they didn't have it. But no, I have not yet read it. It's near the top of my literary to-do list.

I can report back when I have.

Vestitor:Why would Esperanto's literature need that?

Well I never said it NEEDED it. I only gave reasons as to why someone might find it worthwhile to translate it.

Hyperboreus:

creedelambard:Or maybe "La Morto."

Nice quote here:

Terry Pratchett: 'Mia avinjo diras ke morti estas kiel ekdormi', Mort aldonis, iomete espere.
'MI NE SCIUS. MI FARIS NENION EL ILI.'

Sadly, this forum appears to not support writing with small caps.

Granny Weatherwax and Death are easily the most interesting characters in the entire Discworld canon, although I'm personally partial to Sir Samuel Vimes and Tiffany Aching. And yes, this is getting way off topic.