jjjj should not be allowed to translate her own work. PERIOD.
I had the pleasure of reading Hgiyiyi in the original skqzvrkl, and it *soared*--the metaphors were pure, the long, lyrical descriptions of the main character's $rwxvkx fields, the farms he visited--and, my god, those *sentences*--like David Foster Wallace snorted a rather large amount of cocaine. They bounced, they wiggled, they twitched. And those sex scenes.
No more.
I got really excited when I saw the English translation, because I was sure I might pick up more in English, but it's like it's not even the same book. Plodding, dull. It's like she took a 35 millimeter film and reshot it on VHS, then broadcast the VHS on a public access channel and recorded it off a TV that didn't quite get that channel. Why couldn't she let a competent translator handle it? My friend Gavin speaks *fluent* skqzvrkl. Fluent! He could've done a superb job. But no, she had to translate it herself. It's like letting playwrights direct their own work. It shouldn't be done.
So if you want to read Hgiyiyi, make sure to special-order the original. It'll be a grind, but it'll be worth it. This English version is just #&vbkm;b.
