The Little Prince translations.

[Firedwarf]

I've actually never read The Little Prince and I'm going out to the bookstore today, so I figured I'd pick it up (that Little Prince quiz or whatever is what sparked the interest.. yeah, anyway)

I heard there were some issues (or something) with the Richard Howard translation and the Katherine Woods one is a lot better. Is this true? Which one should I get!

 

[Firedwarf]

And also- what do you think of the book? If it's as cool as it sounds I think it'll make a good gift for someone I know.

 

[Arch]

It's a great book, actually. So was the cartoon.
My German teacher had us read it in high school.

Side note about the author (if I remember the story correctly): the author loved flying but wasn't allow to fly in France, he became depressed and lived in NY. During WWII, France asked him to fly and offer help for the war, which he did. The author ended up in North Africa fixing his plane, when a German killed him from above. The German pilot flew back to the site where he killed the stranded pilot on the ground. The German pilot then recognized that he killed his favourite author that wrote The Little Prince.

 

[ChromeLife]

Im not sure about the translation stuff... but I adore that book.. makes me cry like a baby.

 

[xfer]

i have friends who adore it, but i think i'm a little biased against it because of the cartoon, which i thought was totally retarded when i was like 5 and saw it on television.

 

[minxnim]

it's my favorite book! i think both translations are good.

 

[Burkhard]

I read the original French version at school in our French lesson and I liked it very much. Actually, I think of all the books we read at school, this is definitely my favourite one!
I think one of the main subjects, if not the main subject of this story is the meaning of friendship. And the most "famous" quote from this book is probably the secret which the fox tells the little prince: "On ne voit bien qu´avec le coeur. L´essentiel est invisible pour les yeux."

 

[FuSoYa]

I have the Katherine Woods translation and I think it's absolute shit. I love the story and when I read the Woods version I can imagine how wonderful it must be in its original language, but seriously, this translation sucks -likely not in meaning but just in the flow. It's basically like she transliterated and went no further than that.

 

[exciar28]

At the first glance I thought it is weird that he did mention translations. WHY? After a while I recognized the author is French and guys here speak english. Often, I forget that western culture DOES NOT speak english only hehe.

 

[Firedwarf]

I have the Katherine Woods translation and I think it's absolute shit. I love the story and when I read the Woods version I can imagine how wonderful it must be in its original language, but seriously, this translation sucks -likely not in meaning but just in the flow. It's basically like she transliterated and went no further than that.

Yeah, apparently the Howard translation is supposed to flow a lot better. I dunno. Maybe I'll just read both and decide. The Howard one also has the original restored watercolors so yeah.