Translating Lovecraft should be of about average difficulty. His English is basically modern, and he doesn't really play too many language tricks. There is a lot of description that would have to be kept intact, and a mood to maintain, but that's about par for the course. (Transliterating the gibberish he throws in would be amusing.)
Public domain Lovecraft texts are available at: http://www.gizmology.net/lovecraft/
Anyone have any suggestions for a good place to start? The available pieces average between 4000 and 5000 words apiece, so a person with a fair amount of time on their hands could probably do one in a week or two.
- The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath
- I don't really remember much of the Lovecraft I've read in the past, but this one sort of sticks out a bit, and was decent. It is ~25k words, though. --jay
- The Cats of Ulthar is short and not too bad.
- Already done: wo translations of "The Book", by H. P. Lovecraft: tu'a le cukta (done by Jordan DeLong), and My version of 'The Book' (by Michael Helsem).
(And, as always, if one doesn't approve of a particular piece undergoing translation, one may hit the back button and pretend it doesn't exist. Thanks, have a nice day.)
There is no need to be so ongoingly apologetic about translation projects. You were in the right, man!
Oh, I'm not trying to be. That was intended as a preemptive (but polite) "may Cthulhu embrace you warmly, and then devour your soul" for people who wanted to waste time by going on about how the translation shouldn't be done.
naku morsi fa le cimni sipna
.i cizra cedra balvi fa lemu'e
mrogau pruce se fanmo