I’m interested in reading Borges. My spanish is good enough for conversation & podcasts, but in my experience, literature often requires an additional vocabulary that I, as an only occasional reader, will gain at high cost but benefit from little.
So the question is: is it better to read a translation that maybe mimics the lexical richness of the original in a different language, or is it better to read a simplified version in the native language? I don’t mind grammatical complexity–which can be applied in conversation–it’s mostly the vocabulary that’s the problem.
Assume an actually advanced book that can be simplified.
Edit: Or maybe an e-reader with the original text and a built-in dictionary would be best? I just jailbroke my kindle.
For Borges specifically, I’ve only read it in translation (as someone who can only read English), but I feel like there’s enough nuance there that I’d prefer a translation. Maybe start by picking up a translation and a simplified version of a book in each language and see how it compares?