To live

It is an interesting experiment to read an author first in one and then another language. I can't read Norwegian so I read the first three of Knausgaard's 'My Struggle' series in the English translation. On holiday I came across the fourth tome in the German translation which I have now nearly finished. Interestingly I think I prefer the English translation, it seems better suited to the text. But maybe this is because I am just more used to reading English nowadays than German; it may also have something to do with the fact that I grew up speaking German in a household where swear words were not often heard and not meant to be spoken, so somehow to read them offend me more than they did in the English translation where it never bothered me. Perhaps also a case of different register, my filters are different for English than they are for German. It's and interesting experience though and I'm enjoying the book even if it sometimes leaves me cringing.