If you stop to think about it, every time you read Harry Potter or Stephen King you are not really reading J.K.Rowling or the author of IT, but the invisible man or woman who have translated his books.It is obvious, I know, but we will never value the work of the translators enough.Without them there are no bestsellers, or the best -selling book on Amazon, or way of reading the best books in history, or anything at all.
With this, in the Digital Platform for Language Learning PREPLY they have investigated which is the book translated into more languages in each country and carried out this literary mapamundi that is also a tribute to the translator's trade.
The research has been carried out from the World Cat Library database and brings together a total of 195 countries.To avoid common places like that about the Bible is the greatest bestseller in history, religious books of doubtful authorship have been omitted as well as countries where no work was found translated into more than five languages.
Among the surprises, or perhaps not, we discover that the most translated European books are children's classics (but also for adults) like Alicia in Wonderland or Bambi.These include the pillars of the earth, of Ken Follet, representing Wales;And a book about chess that is not a Lady's Gambit, from Latvia: my system.A treatise on chess.
In Africa, on the other hand, the autobiographical genre triumphs, with the history of Nugi Wa Thiong’o (that powerful candidate for the Nobel Prize for Literature) the vertical revolution as the most translated.For its part, the mixture of cultures in Asia makes it impossible to detect a trend, while in Oceania they are translated mostly novels around a family saga.South America is especially represented by the Latin American boom, although its most translated book is another.And to North America ... you will not imagine it.I will tell you later.
And, of course, it could not be otherwise.The most translated book in Spain is Don Quijote de la Mancha.
These are the ten most translated books in the world:
10.The alchemist, by Paulo Coelho - Brazil
Translated to more than 80 languages, Paulo Cohelo's book has had an international success above one hundred years of solitude or other Latin American boom classics.Maybe it has something to do with its eagerness for universality.The alchemist recounts a fable around the trip of a young pastor to the pyramids of Egypt in search of a treasure.Santiago - that is the name of the protagonist in reference to the pilgrims - first looks for worldly goods, but ends up discovering that the treasure is inside.
In any languages, we all like to think that "when you want something, the whole universe conspires to help you get it".
9.The tragedy of man, by Imre Madách - Hungary
Imre Madách's dramatic poem is one of the surprises of this research.The Hungarian classic was published in the 19th century, in 1861, by Imre Madách in the wake of the Faust of Goethe and the lost paradise of John Milton.The story of the creation and fall of man tells, taking the devil as the protagonist.
In the tragedy of man Lucifer, Adam and Eva travel through time visiting the fundamental milestones of history, with which the devil tries to convince his companions that life does not make sense and humanity is condemned.Three poor devils trying to find meaning to what we call history, how could it not translate to more than 90 languages?
8.The adventures of Tintin, Hergé (Georges Prosper Remi) - Belgium
The adventures of Tintín, Milú and Captain Haddock are the most essential and sold comics of all time, a drawing and narration lesson in vignettes.And they are eniably funny, adventurers and for all audiences, while remaining a review of the history and fantasies of the twentieth century.A comic classic that would be adapted by Steven Spielberg, who is going to surprise that they have translated into 93 languages?
7.The way to happiness, from L.Ronald Hubbard - United States
Neither Tom Sawyer, nor Moby Dick, nor kill a nightingale, the most translated book in the United States (and North America in general) is this work of "self -help" written by the founder of Scientology.Taked to more than 11two languages, Tom Cruise must be making mortal and pirouettes.
But is it really a surprise?Well, that the most exported book in the country of transcendentalism, by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman and Thoreau is a self -help book, should not catch anyone off guard either.Although perhaps these three classic authors were more successful than Hubbard.In the US.UU.The distribution of the way to happiness in schools and public libraries has been highly discussed.
6.The ingenious gentleman Don Quixote de la Mancha, by Miguel de Cervantes - Spain
What am I going to tell you.Many here we read Quixote too soon and perhaps we did not realize how entertain.And is not for less.Fun, intelligent, full of adventures and irony, Quijote is the first modern novel and one of the best, which has been translated throughout the world (more than 140 languages).
5.Testament, from Taras Shevchenko - Ukraine
(Without editing in Spanish)
The title does not deceive.This is Taras Shevchenko's will, the most famous and translated in history.In 1845 the author who founded modern Ukrainian poetry gave his last will the form of a poem.A song to the liberating struggle of the Ukrainian people that became instant classic and continues to study in schools.And not only in Ukraine.Testament has been translated into more than 150 languages.
4.Fairy Tales, by Hans Christian Andersen - Denmark
Translated to more than 160 languages (not counting children's adaptations), Hans Christian Andersen's stories are one of the best readings for ... Children?Andersen's stories have had several children's versions and Disney movies, but also obsessed Freud for his sinister background.Who has read the original version of the Little Merma.
3.Alicia's adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carrol - England
Alicia's adventures have resulted in more than 175 languages and even had a sequel before writing continuations of literary successes became fashionable, titled through the mirror and what Alicia found there.
Alicia in Wonderland is a fantasy between logic and madness, a masterpiece of the nonsense that, even for the adaptation of Disney, we all know.The creator of Alicia, of the White Rabbit, of the Hatter, Cheshire's cat and the queen of hearts well deserve to translate and know her throughout the world.
two.The adventures of Pinocchio, Carlo Collodi - Italy
Another European children's classic, with a jump to the more than 300 translations in different languages and that has resulted in dozens of adaptations to the theater, ballet, opera, animation and cinema movies.
Carlo Collidi's novel, published by deliveries in 1883 with the title of "History of a puppet", was an allegory about personal growth and the development of honor, truth and virtue in a wooden child.As usually happens in these cases, Collodi did not think about writing a masterpiece of children's literature, and in fact originally Pinocchio was hanged by his many errors without becoming a real child.But we have all changed the end because we like to think that this mischievous and disobedient child can get to reconcile with Geppetto.
1.The Little Prince, from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry-France
Traducido a más de 38two idiomas, El Principito tiene el récord Guinness de las traducciones.I even know several people who collect their editions in all languages.Crazy.
The book written by the French aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry long before libraries arose a section dedicated to self-help.And it is that the little prince is a fable about the meaning of life, loneliness, friendship, love and loss that children and adults can read and learn with her, but it is also a brief novel, perfectly independent of her message,that can be read as the most perfect children's book that exists.In addition, for once the original version does not bring us surprise.The Little Prince looks at adults with all the candor and innocence of childhood.
